
iiiiiife 












Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/vertooghvannieun01donc 



& 

o- 



;*«• 



^onc-kj nd-r'\atn \iar\ ol^t. 



VEETOOGH 



NI-EÜ NEDERLAND, 



BREEDEN RAEDT 



YEREENICHDE NEDERLAIDSCÏÏE PPtOYIKTIEN. 



TWO RARE TRACTS, PRINTED IN 1649— '50. 



EELATING TO THE ADMUttöTRATION OF AFFAIRS IN NEW NETHERLAND. 



gCtaitalattli front tftt ffiutti) 



HENRY a MURPHY. 



NEW YORK 
1854. 



\ 



'2- 



-O 



t'=t'"\ 



■'L-' 



ONLY 125 COPIES PRINTED. 



PETEE, FOECE, ESQ., 

■nits VOLIIMK IS ISSCUIGKI» FOK HIS SEKVICBS ' TO TlIK 

HISTORY OF OUK COUNTRY, AN'D FRO« 

PERSONAL ESTEEJI. 



PREFACE. 



The two tracts of which translations are now presented, 
relate to the same period in the history of' the government of 
New Netherland. The " Yertoogh " was first written, though 
the " Breeden Eaedt " was printed a year before it. They 
are both composed, in bad temper, against the government of 
the West India Company and its officers ; but the Breeden 
Eaedt is particularly coarse and calumnious, though afford- 
ing us some facts not known from any other source. It was 
unquestionably written by Cornelis Melyn, or under his dicta- 
tion. This may be inferred, not only from the fact that it was 
printed at Antwerp, the place of his nativity, and where he 
probably resorted to on his return to Holland, but from the 
great stress which the principal interlocutor in the dialogue 
lays upon his case. The design is palpably to revenge him- 
self upon Stuyvesant for his judgment and sentence against 
him. 

Tbe translation of the Yertoogh has already appeared 
in print, in the volume of the Collections of the New York 
Historical Society printed in 1849 ; but it has been deemed 
desirable by Mr. Lenox to preserve it in its present form, in 
uniformity with the "Yoyages of De Yries," already printed, 
and with other translations which may hereafter similarly 
appear, of rare pamphlets relating to New Netherland. 

The map now reproduced, dates somewhat later than the 
tracts. It appeared originally in a pamphlet, published at 
Middleburgh in 1666 (and the same year at the Hague, though 
the copy printed there, now before us, is without tlie map), in 
answer to the reply of Sir George Downing, English embassa- 
dor at the Hague, to the remarks of the deputies of the States 



Vlll PREFACE. 

General, in a memoir delivered by them in 1664. At the end 
of this pamphlet,. there is an appendix of "various matters 
concerning New Netherland, to wit : the boundaries ; extracts 
from several documents in regard to disputes with the Eng- 
lish, both upon Long Island and elsewhere ; the proceedings of 
John Scott ; and the conquest of ISTew Amsterdam, &c., all in 
New ISTetherland ;" and the map is there inserted. 

The title of the " Broad-Advice," is " Beeeden-Eaedt 
AKNDE Yeeeenichde Nedeelandsche Peovintien. Geleelaud, 
Holland, Zeeland, Uteecht, Veiesland, Ovee-Yssel, Geoen- 

INGEN. GeMAECKT ENDE GESTELT UTT DIVEESE WAEE EN WAEE- 

ACHTiGE MEMOEiEN. DooE J. A. G. W. C. Tot Aïitwerpen, 
Ghedruct by Francoys van Duynen, BoecJcverTcooper iy de 
Beurs in Erasmus, 1649." "VVe have rendered it into Eng- 
lish by the terms " Broad-Advice," which is, however, am- 
biguous ; the word " broad " being probably intended to con- 
vey the sense both of " full " and " plain." 

H. C. M. 



REPRESENTATION 



FROM 



jMew-lMether-jLand 



Concerning the Situation, Fruit- 
fulness, and Poor Condition 
of the same. 




Hague, 



Printed by Michael Stael , Book-seller dwelling upon the Outer- 
Oourt, opposite the Pi-ison-Gate, 16 5 0. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Although the existence of New Netherland as an Amer- 
ican dependency of Ketherland, had been made known by dif- 
ferent publications, no distinct description of the country was 
printed until the year 1650. In that year appeared at the 
Hague a small quarto tract of forty-nine pages, with the title 
of Veetoogh van Nieu Nedekland weghens de Ghelegen- 

THEYDT, VrUCHTBAEKHYDT, EN SoBEEEN StAET DESSELFS. 

As this work was the first in point of time to record the 
early annals of New Netherland, and the acts of a dynasty 
which claimed, for half a century, sovereignty and exclusive 
jm-isdiction over the greater portion of wliat now constitutes 
six States of this Confederacy, so is it also the original printed 
source from wliich subsequent writers have drawn many of 
their facts in relation to that period of the history of those 
States. Uiitil recently, the original Avork has not for many 
years been knowii to exist. Its rarity in Europe may be 
inferred from the fact that the industrious Ebeling mentions 
it as, probably a printed document, and Lambrechtsen, the late 
Dutch historian of New Netherland, says, that notwithstand- 
ing repeated efiorts he had been imable to obtain possession 

of it. 

The value of this historical relic consists in its bemg a 
contemporaneous relation of events in New Netherland, by 
eleven persons who resided there, and who represented the 
entire population of New Amsterdam and the Dutch toAvns 
of Long Island, and were therefore cognizant of the matters 



é INTRODUCTIOiS-. 

stated in it, eitlier of tlieir own knowledge, or from others 
who were concerned in them. It was written to be presented 
to the States General, with a view of obtaining a redress of 
certain grievances of which the people complained, and is 
accordingly generally known as the Remonstrance of New 
Wetherlmid, and is so referred to by most writers. Biit, in 
truth, it is much more than a remonstrance. In order to give 
it effect as a petition for relief, it Avas necessary that the value 
and importance of the country should be set forth, and that 
the rights of the Fatherland to dominion over it, and the 
encroachments of other powers upon it shoiüd be shown. In 
this way not only the sense of justice and sympathy of the 
government would be excited, but the pride of Netherland- 
ers and a regard for their interest would be aroused. Tlie 
work was so prepared ; and it accordingly may properly be 
divided into three parts ; the first giving a description of the 
natives and of the physical features of the country, the second 
being a relation of the events connected with its settlement 
by Europeans, and the third forming a remonstrance against 
the policy and acts of the West India Company at home, and 
its governors, or Directors General as they were called, in 
this country. In regard to its authenticity it may be ob- 
served, that the documents which have within the last forty 
years been made accessible to the public, fully corroborate 
its statements of matters which are j)m-ely historical, and not 
connected with the points of complaint ; and as to those points, 
the facts, for the most part, were not disputed, and only 
alleged to be perverted. 

It was probably written by Adrian van der Donck. He 
at least composed the original journal from which it was 
derived, as appears in the work itself. That it is not in the 
form in which it was when seized by Stuyvesant, is manifest 
from the record, which is still preserved at Albany, of the 
proceedings of the Director and Council on that occasion. 
It was, nevertheless, the document of the Nike Men, a body 
selected by the Director and Council from double that num- 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

ber of persons, nominated by the people, for the purpose of 
aiding the adnaiiiistration in raising money for public objects 
from the inhabitants, though the purpose was declared in gen- 
eral terms to be to confer with it upon the best means of pro- 
moting the prosperity of the coimtry and of the inhabitants. 
The restrictions upon trade which it was the policy of the 
West Lidia Company to impose, had injuriously aifected the 
interests of the freemen of New JSTetherland, by retarding 
population and restraining enterprise ; and the elected Nine 
Men were not long in directing their attention to some mode 
of relief A depiitation to Holland was proposed by them, 
and seconded by the Director General ; but when they sought 
to present their grievances in their own way, without consult- 
ing Stuyvesant, he insisted that the petition should be made 
through him. It was impossible for them to set forth their 
grievances without arraigning the acts of the Director him- 
self, however giiiltless, regarded as the minister of the Com- 
pany, he might be ; and as they were probably instigated by 
two or three individuals, who had private griefs of their own, 
to speak the more harshly of him, they were not disposed to 
make the communication in the manner desired. The conse- 
quence was a quarrel, as detailed in the work, between them 
and the Director. As their appointment was first made in 
September, 1647, and six of them went out of office annually, 
a new appointment was made before the matter was settled ; 
and probably the reason of eleven signing the document was, 
that some of the old, as well as the new members, muted in 
the proceeding. The deputation, consisting of Yan der Donck, 
Jacob van Couwenhoven, and Jan Evertsen-bout, three of the 
College, sailed for Holland in August, 1649, with the Eemon- 
strance ; whither Stuyvesant had already dispatched his Sec- 
retary, Cornells van Tienhoven, who in due time presented 
to the States General an answer to the several specifications 
of complaint. 

In regard to the strictui-es contained in the Remonstrance, 
upon the conduct of the Directors General, it miTst in justice 



6 IISrTRODlTCTION. 

to them be remarked, that while they exerted their authority 
with rigor, and not in consonance with the more liberal 
notions of popular right at the present day, they appear, from 
their correspondence still preserved at Albany, with the 
West India Company, to have acted for the most part under 
positive orders, and in accordance, when they had no direc- 
tions from the Company, with the spirit of their general 
instructions. The weakness of New Netherland in men, and 
in those internal resources which, in the absence of restric- 
tions upon individual entei'prise and in the existence of a 
government which affords security to life and property, nat- 
urally grow up, became more and more apparent as the 
encroachments of its neighbors increased. It was a sense of 
this weakness that originated the complaints, which, when 
they came to be made to the government at home, had to be 
formed into specific charges, which necessarily placed the 
Directors in an tmenviable light, as the immediate atithors of 
the grievances set forth. The real difficulty, however, and 
the fault, were in the management of the Company, which 
had taken possession of New Netherland for commercial pur- 
poses only, and which therefore had in view the planting of 
a colony for the Netherland nation merely as an ancillary to 
their profit. This was obvious when the condition of New 
Netherland was compared with that of the neighboring colo- 
nies ; but in making, at this day, a comparison of its condi- 
tion at that time with that of the adjoining colonies of the 
English, the distinction, in jiistice to the Dutch of New Neth- 
erland, shoiild be ever borne in mind, that although both the 
English and Dutch colonies sprang alike from the enterprise 
of incorporated companies of private adventurers, yet the 
object of the English was not a purely commercial speculation, 
as was that of the Dutch ; and that, while the Dutch Company 
continued its control over its colony until its siibjugation by 
the English, the Companies of the latter, at a very early 
period, and many years before that event, had been dissolved 
in pui'suance of a wiser policy — ^looking to the growth and 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

importance of tlieir American possessions — on the part of 
tlie British government. 

The proceedings of the deputation, on its reaching Hol- 
land, may be well gathered from the letters of the West India 
Company to the Director. The Company felt that the causes 
of complaint were at their own door, and not at that of Stuy- 
vesant ; and thuugh they thought that in some cases, exposed 
by the remonsti-ants, he had exceeded his instructions, they 
yet nobly stood by him. "The Deputies," they wi-ite to him 
on the 16th Feb., 1S50, " provided with letters of credit and 
recommendation to the Department of Amsterdam, kept them 
back for nine or ten weeks, and presented themselves first to 
the States General, expecting to succeed before the Managers 
woiüd know of it. Failing there, they addressed themselves 
to the States of Giielderland, where they belched out their 
calumnies. They would have caused us a great deal of 
trouble, had we not bridled their mouths. The name of New 
Netherland was scarcely ever mentioned before, and now it 
woiild seem as if heaven and earth were interested in it." 
Again, on the 15th of April, they say, " "We have before 
explained at large how the Depitties strove by many siispi- 
cious means to attain their object indirectly, and had suc- 
ceeded so far in covering their caliunnies lender a thick veil 
of truth as to impose upon many of the better class, so that 
the matter seemed to assume a perilous aspect both for your 
Honor's reputation and the interests of the "West India Com- 
pany, particularly of the Chamber of Amsterdam. A great 
flare-up was indeed apprehended, but it was prevented by 
the prudent conduct of the committee of their High Mighti- 
nesses, who discovered a remedy which ought to give con- 
tentment to both parties, imtil further provision shall be 
made. We send you a copy of this resolution, from which 
you may learn what vexations we have suffered, and how full 
of danger it is to irritate a fiu-ious multitude." TIae resolu- 
tion of the States General thus sent to Stuyvesant, which was 
merely thepj^qjei of reforms recommended by the committee, 



8 ÏNTEODITCTION. 

condemned the Indian war brought on by Kieft, and required 
for the future that no similar war should be undertaken with- 
out the knowledge of the States General ; it provided that the 
trade in gims and ammunition, with the Indians, should be 
gradually abolished, that the fortifications should be kept in 
repair, that no cattle should be exported from New Nether- 
land, that the Council should be reorganized and Stuys^esant 
ordered home to give an accoiint of his administration, that a 
Court of Justice should be erected for the province, and a 
city government established in New Amsterdam, and that 
two ships should be annually employed in transporting per- 
sons emigrating to New Netherland. In order to give effect 
to this resolution the concurrence of a majority of the man- 
agers of all the Chambers of the West India Company was 
necessary. Tlae Chamber of Amsterdam, to which was 
entrusted the control of the affairs of New Netherland, resisted 
its adoption, and thus the whole subject slept for two years, 
dxu'ing which time two of the deputies returned home, leav- 
ing Van der Donck alone in Holland to press upon the States 
General the complaints already made and others arising imder 
new cases of grievance. The Chambers of Amsterdam finally, 
however, conceded a miinicipal government to New Amster- 
dam, and also some changes in the duties and in the regula- 
tions of trade, the establishment of a school and other minor 
reforms ; and thus terminated what threatened to be a serious 
business for their interests in New Netheiiand. 

Van der Donck remained in Holland until the summer of 
1653, when he retimied to New Netherland. He had em- 
ployed himself in the mean time in writing his Descrvption of 
Ne%o JSfetherlcmd, and in May of that year secured a copy- 
right for the work ; though it was not then published. He 
evidently contemplated an addition to it, which was never 
made, embracing a history of the colony ; for on his retm-n 
home the Company wi-ote to Stuyvesant that he had applied 
for permission to examine the papers in the oflice of the Sec- 
retary of New Netherland, to complete the history which he 



IKTRODUCÏlOX. y 

had nndertaken to write ; Vvrliich application tlicy referred to 
tlie Director, advising him to give tlie permission but so that 
it should not be abnsed and that " the Company's own weap- 
ons should not be turned against itself, and new troiibles 
raised to its annoyance." Stnyvesant probably did not 
encoiu-age the application. The work appeared in 1655, with 
the sanction of the Cliamber of Amsterdam, in a small quarto 
of 100 pages, with the pictorial view of New Amsterdam 
which Mr. Moulton has prefixed to the second part of his his- 
tory. A second edition was pirblished in the following year, 
with the map but without the view. Neither of them con- 
tains the history of New Netkerland ; though both refer those 
who wish to be informed in regard to it to the Yertoogh^* of 
the descriptive portion of which the work of Van der Donck 
is in fact merely an amplification. 



* The Chapter of Van der Donck eontaimng this reference is entirely omitted 
in the published translation of General Johnson. We therefore translate it here : 

" The Netueklands the first Possessors of New Netherlasd. 

" Although the possession and title which tlie Netherlands have to New Neth- 
crland is ampljr treated of, in tlieir length and breadth, in the Representation of 
the Commonaltii, and little moi-e can be said in relation to them unless access be 
had to the Eegisters of the Honorable West India Company, we will neverthe- 
less touch xipon them briefly, en passant. When this coimtry was first discov- 
ered by the Netherlanders, in the year 1609, and it was told them by the natives 
th.it they were the first Christian ex]ilorers in that region, tliey took possession of 
it in the name and on behalf of their High Mightinesses, the Lords the States 
General of the United Netherlands, first in the South Bay at Cape Hinloopen, 
whieli they so called at that time, and wliicli still retains that name, and so all 
along the coast and up tlie rivers, giving names to the different places, as far as 
the freat North River, a great distance up which they sailed, and which some 
of the English will stiU call Hudson's River, but which was then named Mauri- 
tius river, after Prince Maurice, who at that time was Governor in Netherland ; 
from thence they sailed further along, till they went beyond Cape Cod, of 
wliich they also took possession, and which they named New Holland ; and our 
Netherlanders have sailed there and traded at the same places thus taken into 
possession, from time to time, since then until the charter was granted to the 
West Indian Company, when they passed under its jurisdiction. And althougli 
before, we had there in our favor the circumstances of forts, families, and cattle, 

2 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

Li 1651 appeared at Amsterdam a work entitled "i?e- 
schryvmghe vmi Virgmia, Nieuw Nederlcmdt, Nieuw En- 
gelmuU;'" and in 1662 another with the title of ''Kort Ver- 
liael van Nieu Nederlcmdt f both of which are compilations 
from the Vertoogh and other publications. Tix&Km't Yerliael 
was published by the Burgomasters of Amsterdam, on the 
occasion of the transfer of the Soiith river and its adjacent 
country to that city, by the West India Company, and was 
intended to invite the attention of emigrants to the new acqui- 
sition, which is described in very flattering terms, at the ex- 
pense of the North river, against which the constant aggres- 
sions of the English are urged' as a strong objection. It was 
by means of these Avorks that the Vertoogh became more 
known. The description of New Netherland, printed in the 
first volume of the new series of the Collections of the New 
York Historical Society, from the Du Simitière MSS. is deri- 
ved from the Vertoogh. 

In regard to the version of the Vertoogh now made, it may 
be observed that the aim has been rather at correctness in 
interpretation than elegance in expression ; and it has therefore 
been deemed proper to follow more closely than would other- 
wise have been done, the language of the original, and to 
adopt, in many cases, the forms of construction and turns of 
thought of the writer, contrary to the English idiom. 

H. C. M. 



j'et since the year 1622 several forts have been built, farms and plantations 
taken up, much of the land bought of the natives, and other tokens of possession 
shown, as is to be seen at length in the Representation of the Commonalty of 
New Netherland, to whicli we refer the curious reader. It is therefore unusual, 
imliandsome, and unreasonnble for any other nation to assert title or jurisdic- 
tion over these places, or over those situated between such as were first discov- 
ered by the Netlierlanders." 



REPRESENTATION 



NEW NETHERLAND, 



CONCERNING ITS 



SITUATION, PRODUCTIVENESS, AND POOR CONDITION. 



Among all the people in the world, industrious in 
seeking out foreign lands, navigable waters and trade, 
those who bear the name of Netherlanders, will very 
easily hold their place with the first, as is sufficiently 
known to all those who have in any wise saluted the 
thresliold of history, and as will also be confirmed by 
the following relation. The country of which we pro- 
pose to speak, was first discovered in the year of our 
Lord 1609, by the ship Half-Moon, of which Henry 
Hudson was master and supercargo — at the expense of 
the chartered East India Company, though in search of 
a different object.* It was subsequently called New 
Netherland by our people, and very justly, as it was 



* A northwest passage to China, — the attempts to accomplish which have 
caused the discovery and exploration of North America, from the first, more 
than all other objects combined. 



12 IlEPREÖENÏATIOïf FROM 

first discovered and iDossessed by tlie Netherlanders, 
and at tlieir cost ; so that, even at the present day, 
those natives of the country who are so old as to rec- 
ollect when the Dutch ships first came here, declare 
that when they saw them, they did not know what to 
make of them, and could not comprehend whether 
they came down from heaven, or were of the devil. 
Some amonff them, when the first one arrived even im- 
agined it to be a fish, or some monster of the sea ; 
and accordingly a strange rejiort of it spread over the 
whole land. We have also heard the Indians* fre- 
quently say, that they knew nothing of any other part 
of the world, or any other people than their own, be- 
fore the arrival of the Netherlanders. For these rea- 
sons, therefore, and on account of the similarity of 
climate, situation, and fertility, this place is rightly 
called New Netherland. It is situated on the northerly 
coast of America, in the latitude of 38, 39, 40, 41, and 
42 degrees, or thereabouts, coast-wise. It is bounded 
on the northeast by New England, and on the south- 
west by Virginia. The coast runs nearly southwest 
and northeast, and is washed by the ocean. On the 
north is the river of Canada, a large river running far 
into the interior. The northwest side is, for the most 
part, still unknown. 

The land is naturally fruitful, and capable of sup- 
porting a large population, if it were judiciously allot- 
ted according to location. The air is pleasant, and 

* Wilden — ivild men — was the woi-d generally used by the Dutch and 
Swedes to designate the natives of the country. We adopt the received term 
for convenience. 



iS^EW NETHERLAND. 13 

more temperate than in Netherland. The winds are 
changeable, and blow from all points, but generally 
from the southwest and northwest ; the former pre- 
vailing in summer, and the latter in winter, at times 
very sharply, but constituting, nevertheless, the great- 
est blessing to the country as regards the health of the 
people, being very bracing and pure, and driving off 
or consuming aU damps and superfluous moisture. The 
coast is generally clear and sandy, but double and bro- 
ken into islands. Eastward from the North river lies 
Long Island, about forty miles'"' in length, forming a 
fine wide river, which falls at either end into the ocean, 
and affording a convenient passage inside for the whole 
distance, protected from the dangers of the sea by a 
great number of good bays and other places of anchor- 
age, so that vessels can thereby in winter readily pass 
east and west. Towards the south, approaching the 
South river,f there are several inlets ; but they are 
muddy and sandy, though by jDroper exertion they 
could be used. Inside these again, there are large 
streams and valleys, but the waters are shallow. Along 
the seacoast the land is generally sandy or gravelly, not 
very high, but tolerably fertile, and for the most part 
covered over with beautiful woods. The countrv is in 
many places hilly, with some high mountains, and very 
fine flats and mowing lands, together with large mead- 
ows, salt and fresh, all making very fine hay land. It 
is overgrown with all kinds of trees, standing without 



* A Dutcli mile is equal to four English miles. 
f The river Delaivare. 



14 REPRESENTATION FROM 

order, as in other wildernesses ; except tliat tlie moAving 
lands, flats and meadows, liave few or no trees, though 
with little pains they might be made good wood-land. 

The seasons are the same as in ISTetherland, but the 
summer is warmer and begins more suddenly. The 
winter is cold, and further inland, or towards the most 
northerly part, more so than in Netherland. It is also 
subjected to much snow, which remains long on the 
ground, and in the interior, three, four, and five 
months ; but near the seacoast it is quickly dissolved 
by the southerly winds. Thunder, lightning, rain, 
showers, hail, snow, frosts, dew, and the like, are the 
same as in ISTetherland, except that, in the summer, sud- 
den gusts of wind are somewhat more frequent. 

The land is adapted to the production of all kinds 
of winter and summer fruits, and with less trouble and 
tilling than in Netherland. It produces different kinds 
of wood, large and small, suitable for building houses 
and ships, consisting of oaks of various kinds, as post- 
oak, white smooth bark, 'white rough bark, gray bark, 
black bark, and another kind which they call, from its 
softness, butter oak, the poorest of all, and not very 
valuable ; the others, if cultivated as in Netherland, 
would be equal to any Flemish or Brabant oaks. It 
also yields several species of nut wood, such as oil- 
nuts, large and small ; walnut of different sizes, in great 
abundance, and good for fuel, for which it is much 
used, and chestnut, the same as in Netherland, growing 
in the woods without order. There are three varieties 
of beech, — water beech, common beech, and hedge 
beech, — also, ax-handle wood, two species of canoe 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 15 

wood, ash, bircli, fir, fire-vfood, wild cedar, liudeu, al- 
der, willow, thorn, elder, and many other kinds ; useful 
for various purposes, but unknown to us by name, and 
which the carpenters will be glad to submit for exam- 
ination. 

The indigenous fruits consist principally of acorns, 
some of which are very sweet ; nuts of different kinds, 
chestnuts, beechnuts, mulberries, plums, but not many, 
medlars, wild cherries, black currants, gooseberries, ha- 
zle nuts in great quantities, small apples, very large 
strawberries throughout the country, with many other 
fruits and roots which the Indians use. Thei'e is also 
plenty of bill-berries or blue-berries, together with 
ground-nuts and artichokes, which grow under ground. 
Almost the whole land is full of vines, as well the wild 
woods as the mowing lands and flats ; but they grow 
principally near to and upon the banks of the brooks, 
streams, and rivers, which are numerous, and run con- 
veniently and pleasantly as if they were designed for 
the purpose. The grapes comprise many varieties, 
some white, some blue, some very fleshy, and only fit 
to make raisins of, others, on the contrary, juicy ; some 
are very large and others small. The juice is pleasant, 
and as white in some as French or Ehenish wine, in 
others it is a very deep red, like Tent, and in some 
paler. The vines run much on the trees, and are sha- 
ded by their leaves, so that the grapes ripen late and 
are a little sour ; but when the people shall have more 
experience, as fine wines will undoubtedly be naade 
here as in any other country. In regard to other 
fruits, all those which grow in ISTetherland, also grow 



10 REPRESENTATION FROM 

very well in New Netlierland, without requiring as 
mucli care to be bestowed upon tliem as is necessary 
there. Garden fruits succeed very well, and are dryer, 
sweeter, and more pleasant than in Netherland ; for 
proof of which we may instance particularly musk- 
melons, citrons, or watermelons, which in New Nether- 
land grow readily in the open fields, if the briars and 
weeds are kept from them, but in Netherland they re- 
quire the care of amateurs, or those who cultivate them 
for profit in very small gardens, and then they are nei- 
ther so perfect by far, nor as palatable, as they are in 
New Netherland. In general all kinds of pumpkins 
are also much drier, sweeter, and more delicious, which 
is caused by the temperateness and amenity of the cli- 
mate. 

The tame cattle are in size and other respects about 
the same as in Netherland ; but the English cattle and 
swine thrive and feed best, appearing to be better 
suited to the country than those from Holland. They 
require, too, less trouble, expense, and attention ; for it 
is not necessary in winter to look after such as are not 
in use, or the swine, except that in the time of a deep 
snow they should have some attention. Milch cows 
are much less trouble than they are in Holland, as 
most of the time, if any care be requisite, it is only for 
the purpose of giving them occasionally a little hay. 

The wild animals are principally, lions,* but they 
are few ; bears, of which there are many ; elks and deer 
in great numbers, some of which are entirely white, 

* Panthers— 'Sometimes called American lions. 



é 



NEW NETITERLAXl"). lY 

and otliers Avliolly black. The Indians say that the 
white deer are of very great consequence in the esti- 
mation of the other deer, and are exceedingly beloved, 
regarded, and honored by the others ; but that it is oth- 
erwise with the black deer. There are other large 
animals in the interior, but they are unknown to the 
Christians. There are also wolves, dangerous only to 
small cattle, beavers, otters, weasels, wild cats, foxes^ 
racoons, minks, hares, muskrats, about as large as cats, 
polecats, and squirrels, some of which can fly. There 
are also ground hogs and other small animals ; but they 
are for the most part, as we said before, not known to 
the Christians. 

Of birds, this country is by no means without its 
share. There are great numbers of birds of prey, as, 
eagles, of two kinds, — the hald-headed^ which has the 
head, tail, and principal feathers white, and the common 
kind ; hawks, buzzards, sparrow-hawks, crows, chicken- 
hawks, and many others, all capable of being trained 
and used for hunting, though they differ in shape, 
somewhat, from those in Netherland. There is also a 
bird which has its head like a cat, and its body like a 
large owl, colored white.* We know no name for it 
in Netherland, but in France it is called grand due, 
and is esteemed very highly. 

The other birds are turkies, the same as in ITether- 
land, but they are wild, and are plentiest and best in 
winter ; several kinds of partridges, some smaller than 
in Netherland, others larger ; curlews, wood and water 
snipes, pheasants, heath-hens, cranes, herons, bitterns ; 

* The. Cat-Owl — Bubo virginiamis. 

3 



?^ 



18 REPRESENTATION FROM 

multitudes of pigeons resemWing coal-pigeons, but a 
little smaller ; quails, merlins, thrushes, shore-runners, 
but in some respects different from those of Nether- 
land. There are other small birds, some of which sing ; 
but the names of most of them are unknown to us, and 
would take long to enumerate. Water-fowl are found 
here of different kinds, very good to eat ; also swans, 
similar to those in Netherland and full as large ; three 
kinds of geese — gray geese, which are the largest and 
best, red geese, and white-headed geese ; ducks of dif- 
ferent kinds, widgeons, divers, coots, eel-shovelers, 
and several others, but not so abundant as the fore- 
going. 

The river fish are almost the same as in Nether- 
land, comprising salmon, sturgeon, twelves, thirteens,* 
shad, carp, perch, pike, trout, roach, thickhead, suckers, 
sun-fish, eel, nine-eyes or lampreys, both much more 
abundant and larger than in Netherland, besides many 
other valuable fish which we are unable to name. 

In the salt water are caught cod-fish, shell-fish, 
weak-fish, herring, mackerel, thorn-backs, flounders, 
plaice, sheeps-head, black-fish, sea-dogs, panyns, and 
many others ; also lobsters, crabs, great cockles, from 
which the Indians make the white and black Zeewant, 
oysters and muscles in great quantities; with many 
other kinds of shell-fish very similar to each other, for 
which we know no names ; besides sea and land tor- 
toises. 



* The striped bass and driim-Jiiih, 'VThieU •were found liere after the shad, which 
in the Dutch language is named e/fi (eleventh), were called twelves and thir- 
teens, from that circumstance. 



NEW NETHEllLAA'l). 19 

The venomous animals consist, for the most part, of 
adders and lizards, though they are quite harmless. 
There are snakes of different kinds, which are not dan- 
gerous, and flee before men if they possibly can, else 
they are usually beaten to death. The rattle-snakes, 
however, which have a rattle on the tail, with which 
they rattle very loudly when they are angry or intend 
to sting, and which grows every year a joint larger, are 
very malignant, and do not readily retreat before a 
man or any other creature. Whoever is bitten by 
them runs great danger of his life, unless great care 
be taken ; but fortunately they are not numerous, and 
there grows spontaneously in the country, the true 
snake root, which is very highly esteemed by the In- 
dians as an unfailing cure.* 

The medicinal plants found in New Netherland in 
a day, by little search, as far as they have come to our 
knowledge, consist principally of Venus' hair, hart's 
tongue, lingwort, polypody, white mullein, priest's shoe, 
garden and sea-beach orach, water germander, tower- 
mustard, sweet flag, sassafras, crowfoot, plantain, shep- 
herd's purse, mallows, wild marjoram, crane's bill, 
marsh-mallows, false eglantine, laurel, violet, blue flag, 
wild indigo, Solomon's seal, dragon's blood, comfrey, 
milfoil, many sorts of fern, wild lilies of different kinds, 
agrimony, wild leek, blessed thistle, snake-root, Spanish 



* The serpejitaria is the plant liere referred to, which, it is well known, is not 
an antidote to the poison of snakes. Lieut. Abert, however, mentions, in the 
Report of his Examination of New Mexico, a plant of alexipharraical virtues, in 
use among the Chayenne Indians, supposed to be a species of Coreopsis. 



20 REPRESENTATION FROM 

figs, wliicli grow out of tlie leaves,* tarragon, and nu- 
merous other plants and flowers ; but as we are not 
skilled in those things, we can not say much of them ; 
yet it is not to be doubted that amateurs would be able 
to find many simples of great and different virtues ; in 
which we have confidence, i^rincipally because the In- 
dians cure very dangerous and perilous wounds and 
sores by roots, leaves, and other trifles. 

It is certain that the Indigo silvestris grows here 
spontaneously without human aid. It could be easily 
cultivated if there were people who would undertake 
it ; at least the other species would grow very well and 
yield a good profit. We have seen proof of this in the 
colony of Renselaerswyck, though it was all sown too 
late and upon a barren rock where there was little 
earth. It came up very well, but in consequence of the 
drought turned very yellow and withered, and was neg- 
lected ; nevertheless it was evident, that if it were well 
covered, it would succeed. Madder plants also would 
undoubtedly grow well l)oth in fields and gardens, and 
better than in Zealand. 

There may be discovered casually or by little 
search, different minerals, upon some of which experi- 
ments have been made according to our limited means, 
and which are found good. We have attempted sev- 
eral times to send specimens of them to Netherland, 
once with Arent van Oorenbenf by way of New Haven 



* Probably the prickly pear is meant. 

f Arent Corsen. He embarked in Mr. Lamberson's ship, the fate of which 
was niarvelously connected with a mirage by the early New-England writers. 
See Winthrop's J<mrnal, ii. 254, and Mather's Magnalia, 26. 



NEW NEÏHEKLAND. 21 

and England ; but tlie ship was wrecked and no tidings 
of it have ever been received. Director William Kieft 
also had many different specimens with him in the 
ship, the Princess, but they were lost in her with him. 
The mountains and mines nevertheless remain, and are 
easily to be found again whenever it may be thought 
jjroper to go to the labor and exjDense. In 'New 
England they have already progressed so far as to 
make castings of iron pots, tankards, balls, and the 
like out of their minerals; and we firmly believe all 
that is wanting here is to have a beginning made ; for 
there are in New Netherland two kinds of marcasite, 
and mines of white and yellow quicksilver, of gold, 
silver, coj)per, iron, black lead, and hard coal. It is 
supposed that tin and lead will also be found; but 
who will seek after them or who will work them, as 
long as there are not more people ? 

Fuller's earth is found in abundance, and Armenian 
bole ; also white, red, yellow, blue, and black clay, very 
solid and greasy, and suitable for many purposes : earth 
for stone ware, mountain-chrystal, glass like that of 
Muscovy, green serpentine stone in great abundance, 
gray hearth-stone, slate, red grindstone, flint, paving 
stone, large quantities of all varieties of quarry stone 
suitable for building and all kinds of walls, asbestos 
and very many other kinds applicable to the use of 
man. There are different paints, but the Christians 
are not skilled in them. They are seen daily on the 
Indians, who understand their nature, and use them to 
paint themselves in different colors. If it were not that 
explorers are wanting, our people would be able to 
find them, and provide themselves with them. 



22 REPllEÖENTATION FRUM 

Of iJie Americans or Natives^ their Appearance^ Occii- 
pations^ and Manner of Living. 

The natives are generally well-set iu their limbs, 
slender round the waist, broad across the shoulders, 
and have black hair and dark eyes. They are very 
nimble and active, well adapted to travel on foot and 
to drag heavy burdens. They are foul and slovenly in 
their actions, and make little of all kinds of hardships, 
to which, indeed, they are from youth accustomed. They 
are like the Brazilians in color, or as yellow as the peo- 
])le who sometimes come to Netherland and are called 
Heathens. The men generally have no beard, or very 
little, which they pull out. They use very few words, 
which they first well consider. Naturally they are 
very modest, simple, and inexperienced; though in 
their actions high-minded enough, vigorous, and quick 
to comprehend or learn, be it right or wrong, when- 
ever they are so inclined. They are not honorable as 
soldiers, but perfidious, accomplishing all their enter- 
prises by treachery, using many stratagems to deceive 
their enemies, and ordering all their plans involving 
any danger, by night. The desire of revenge appears to 
be born in them. They are very obstinate in defend- 
ing themselves when they cannot run, which, however, 
they do when they can ; and they make little of death 
when it is inevitable, and despise all tortures which 
can be inflicted upon them while dying, manifesting no 
sorrow, but usually singing on the occasion. They under- 
stand how to cure wounds and hurts, or inveterate sores 
and injuries, by means of herbs and roots which grow 
in the country, and which are known to them. Their 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 23 

clothiug, botli for men and -n-omen, is a piece of duftels 
or leather, in front, witli a deer skin or elk's hide over 
the body. Some have bears' hides, of which they make 
doublets ; others have coats made of the skins of 
racoons, wild-cats, wolves, dogs, weasels, squirrels, bea- 
vers and tlie like, and also of turkey's feathers. At 
present, they use for the most part duffels cloth, which 
they obtain in barter from the Christians. They make 
their stockings and shoes of deer skins or elks' hide, 
and some have shoes made of corn-husks ; of which 
they also make sacks. Their money consists of white 
and black Zeexoant^ which they themselves make. Their 
measure of value is by the hand or by the fathom ; but 
their corn is measured by denotas^ which are bags they 
make themselves. Their ornaments consist in cutting 
their bodies, or painting them with various colors, some- 
times very black, if they are in mourning, and gener- 
ally in the face. They suspend Zeeioant^ both white 
and black, from their heads — which they otherwise are 
jiot wont to cover, but on which they are now beginning 
to wear hats and caps bought of the Christians — and 
from their ears. They also put it round their necks and 
bodies, wherewith after their manner they appear very 
fine. They have long deer's hair which is dyed red, 
and of which they make rings for the head, and other 
hair of the same color, to hang from the neck like 
tresses, of which they are very proud. They frequently 
smear their skin and hair with different kinds of grease. 
They can most all swim. They themselves make the 
boats they use, which are of two kinds, some of entire 
trees, which they hollow out with fire, hatchets, and 



24 REPRESENTATION FROM 

adzes, and wliicli tlie Christians call canoes ; tlie others 
are made of bark, which they put together very skill- 
fully, and which are also called canoes. 

Traces of the institution of marriage can just be 
perceived among them, and nothing more. A man and 
woman join themselves together without any particu- 
lar ceremony, otherwise than that the man by previous 
agreement with the woman gives her some Zeewant or 
cloth, which on their separation, 'which soon happens, 
he takes again. Both men and women are utterlj^ 
unchaste and shamelessly promiscuous in their inter- 
course, which is the cause of the men so often changing 
their wives and the women their husbands. Ordinarily 
they have but one wife, sometimes two or three, but 
this is generally among the chiefs. They have also 
among them different conditions of persons, such as no- 
ble and ignoble. The men are generally lazy, and do 
nothing until they become old and unesteemed, when 
they make spoons, wooden bowls, bags, nets, and other 
similar articles ; beyond this the men do nothing ex» 
cept fish, hunt, and go to war. The women are com- 
pelled to do the rest of the work, such as planting 
corn, cutting and drawing wood, cooking, taking care 
of the children, and whatever else there is to be done. 
Their dwellings consist of hickory saplings, placed up- 
right in the ground and bent arch-wise ; the tops are 
covered with barks of trees, which they cut for this 
purpose in great quantities. Some even have within 
them little boxes and imagery cut out rough, with very 
little design, but these are generally in the houses of 
the chiefs. In the fishing and hunting seasons, they 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 25 

lie under tlie open sky or little better. They do not 
live long in one place, but move about several times in 
a year, at sucb times and to sucli places as it appears 
beforeband best and easiest for tbem to obtain subsist- 
ence. 

They are divided into different tribes and lan- 
guages, each tribe living generally by itself, and hav- 
ing one of its number as a chief, though he has not 
much power or distinction except in their dances or 
in time of war. Among some there is not the least 
knowledge of God, and among others very little, though 
they relate very strange fables concerning Him. 

They are in general much afraid of the Devil, who 
receives their adoration ; and some give themselves up 
to him, and thus permit themselves to be wheedled.* 
But their devils, they say, will have nothing to do with 
the Dutch. No haunting of spirits and the like are 
heard of among them. They make offerings to the 
Devil sometimes, but with few solemnities. They be- 
lieve in the immortality of the soul. They have some 
knowledge of the sun, moon, and stars, which they un- 
derstand well how to name ; and they judge tolerably 
well about the weather. There is hardly any law or 
justice among them, except sometimes in war matters, 
and then very little. The nearest blood is the avenger. 
The youngest are the most courageous, and do for the 



* Tlie Indian mode of reasoning on this subject is well stated by Biörck, in 
his dissertation De Plantatione Ecclesia: Suecame in America, Referring to their 
belief in a celestial and terrestrial Manitto, he says, " They perversely argue, 
that the former is not to be adored or feared, because he is good ; but the latter 
is to be feared and ■(vorsliiped, because he is bad." 

4 



26 REPRESENTATION FROM 

most part what they please. Their weapons formerly 
were the l)Ow and arrow, which they employ with 
wonderful skill ; but they now generally use clap-ham- 
mers ; and those who live near the Christians or have 
many dealings with them, have firelocks and hatchets, 
which they obtain in trade. They are exceedingly 
fond of guns, sparing no expense for them, and are so 
skillful in the use of them that they surpass many Chris- 
tians. Their food is coarse and simple, drinking water 
as their only beverage, and eating the flesh of all kinds 
of animals which the country affords, cooked without 
being dressed. They eat even badgers, dogs, eagles, 
and such like trash, upon which Christians place no 
value. They use all kinds of fish, which they commonly 
cook without removing the entrails, and snakes, frogs, 
and the like. They know how to preserve fish and 
meat during winter, and to cook them with corn-meal. 
They make their bread of maize, but it is very plain, 
and cook it either whole or broken in a pestle block. 
The women do this, and make of it a pap or porridge, 
which some of them call Sapsis,"^' others Miimdare, 
and which is their daily food. They mix this also well 
with small beans of different colors, which they plant 
themselves ; but this is held by them as a dainty dish 
more than as daily food. 



* Probably a mispriut foi- Sapaan. 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 27 



By tvhom New Netlierland ^oas jh^st Discovered, and 
what are its Boundaries. 

That New Netlierland was first found, claimed, and 
possessed by Netherlanders, lias already been stated ; 
but inasmucli as a dispute has arisen, not only with the 
Swedes (which is of little moment) but especially 
with the English, who have already entered upon and 
seized a great part thereof, it is necessary to speak 
of each claim somewhat at large. 

But because this matter has been treated upon by 
various ingenious minds in its length and breadth, and 
as those claims are so absurd as to require only a few 
reasons in answer to them, we will be as brief as is in 
any wise practicable. After their High Mightinesses 
the Lords States General were pleased, in the year of 
our Lord 1622, to include this province in their grant 
to the Honorable "West India Company, their Honors 
deemed it necessary to take into possession so naturally 
beautiful and noble a province ; which was immediately 
done, as opportunity offered, the same as in all similar 
beginnings. Since the year of our Lord 1623, four 
forts have been built there by order of the Lord May- 
ors, one on the south point of the Manhatans Island, 
where the East and North rivers unite, called New 
Amsterdam, where the staple-right* of New Nether- 
land was designed to be ; another upon the same river, 

* Staple-right is a privilege, granted to the inhabitants of a place, to compel 
the masters of vessels or merchants trading along their coasts, to discharge their 
cargoes there for sale, or else pay duties. 



28 REPRESENTATION FROM 

six-and-tliirty Dutcli miles Mgher up, and three miles 
below the great Cohoes (Koclioos) fall of the Mohawk's 
river (Maquas-kil), on the west side of the river, in 
the colony of Kenselaerswyck, and is called Orange ; 
but upon this river there has been as yet no dispute 
with any foreigners. Upon the South river lies fort 
Nassau, and upon the Fresh river,* the Good Hope. 
Of these four forts there has been always, from the 
beginning to the present time some possession, although 
they are all now in a very bad condition, not only in 
themselves, but also as regards possession. 

These forts, both to the south and north, are so 
situated as to command and protect not only the said 
rivers, but also the plantations between them, as well 
as those round about them, and on the other side of 
the river as far as the ownership by occupation extends. 
These the Hon. Company declared they owned, and 
would maintain against all foreign or domestic powers 
who should attempt to seize them against their consent. 
Yet, on the northeast side of New Netherland, this 
declaration was not at all regarded or observed by the 
English living to the eastward ; for, notwithstanding 
possession was already fully taken by the building and 
occupation of fort Good Hope, and there was no neg- 
lect from time to time in warning them, in making 
known our rights, and in protesting against their usurp- 
ation and violence, they have disregarded all these 
things, and have seized and possessed, and still hold, 
the largest and best part of New Netherland, that is, 

* Connecticut Rirei-, 



NEW NETIIERLAND. . 29 

on tte east side of' the North river, from Cape Cod 
(by our people in 1609 called New Holland, and taken 
possession of by the setting up of the Arms of their 
High Mightinesses), to within six miles of the North 
river, where the English have now a village called 
Stamford, from whence it could be traveled now, in a 
summer's day, to the North river and back again, if 
the Indian path were only known. The English of 
New Haven also have a trading-house, which lies east 
or southeast of Magdalen Island, and not more than 
six miles from the North river, in which this Island 
lies, on the east side twenty-three and a half miles 
above Fort Amsterdam.* This trading-post was estab- 
lished for no other purpose than to divert the trade of 
the North river, or to destroy it entirely. They have 
also endeavored several times, during eight or nine 
years past, to buy of the Indians a large quantity of 
land (which would have served more than any other 
thing to draw off the trade), as we have understood 
from the Indians; for the post is situated not more 
than three or four miles from the east bounds of the 
colony of Renselaerswyck. 

This and similar difficulties these people now wish 
to lay to our charge, all under the pretense of a very 
clear conscience, notwithstanding King James, of most 
glorious memory, chartered the Virginia Companies 
upon condition that they should remain an hundred 
miles from each other, according to our reckoning. 



* Between the landings of Redhook. The trading-post of the English here 
gpoken of was that of Mi', Pinohon on the Connecticut, 



■30 , KKPRESENTATION FROM 

They are willing to avail themselves of this grant, but 
by no means to comply with the terms stipulated in 
it. 

All the islands, bays, havens, rivers, Mis,* and 
places, even to a great distance on the other side of 
New Holland or Cape Cod, have Dutch names, which 
our Dutch ship-masters and traders gave to them, who 
were the first to discover and to trade with them, even 
before they had names, as the English themselves well 
know; but as long as they could do as they pleased, 
they were willing not to know it. And those of them 
who are at the Fresh river, have desired to enter into 
an agreement to make a yearly acknowledgment, or an 
absolute purchase, which, indeed, is proof positive that 
our right was well known to them, and that they them- 
selves had nothing against it in conscience, although 
they now, from time to time, have invented and pre- 
tended many things in order to screen themselves, or 
thereby to cause delay. 

Moreover, the people of Khode Island, when they 
were at variance with those of the Bay,f sought refuge 
among the Dutch, and sojourn among them. For all 
these things, and what we shall relate in the following 
pages, there are proofs and documents enough, either 
with the secretary of the company or with the di- 
rectors. 

In short, it is just this with the English: they are 
willing to know the Netherlanders, and to use them 

* A iil is a small stream, not entitled to be called either a strait or a river. 
] Massachusetts. Roger Williams embarked from Ifcw Amsterdam for England 
in 1643, being interdicted Boston. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 31 

as a protection iu time of need ; but wlieu that is past, 
they no longer regard them, but play the fool with 
them. This happens so only because we have neg- 
lected to populate the land ; or, to speak more plainly 
and truly, because we have, out of regard for our own 
profit, wished to scrape all the fat into one or more 
pots, and thus secure the trade and neglect population. 

Long Island, which on account of its fine bays and 
havens, and good lands, is a croion for tlie Province^ 
they have also seized upon, except, on the west end, 
two Dutch villages — ^Breuckelen and Amersvoort,* not 
of much importance — and some English villages, as 
Gravesend, Greenwich, and Mespat (from which the 
people were driven ofi' during the war, and which was 
afterwards confiscated by Director Kieft ; but as the 
owners appealed therefrom, it remains so still, though 
there are now a very few people in the place) : also, 
Vlissengen,f which is a pretty village and tolerably 
rich in cattle. The fourth and last village is Hemp- 
stead, which is superior to the rest, for it is very rich 
in cattle. 

As we are now on the subject of Long Island, we 
will, because the English claim it, speak of it some- 
what particularly. The ocean is on the south, and the 
East river on the north side of it ; and, as we have said, 
it is— on account of its goodsituation, of its land, and 
of its convenient harbors and anchoring places — a 
crown for New Netherland. The East river separates 
it from Manhatans Island as far as the Hellegat. It is 

» Flatlands. \ Flusliing. 



32 REPRESENTATION FROM 

tolerably wide and convenient ; and lias been inhabited 
by our freemen from the first, according as opportu- 
nities offered. In the year 1640, a Scotchman, with 
an English commission, was arrested by Director Wil- 
liam Kieft. He laid claim to the Island, but his pre- 
tension was not much regarded ; for which reason he 
departed without accomplishing any thing, having influ- 
enced only a few simple people. Director Kieft also 
afterwards sent and broke up the English who wished 
to begin a settlement at Oyster Bay, and thus it has 
remained from that time to the present. 

In the year 1647, a Scotchman came here, who 
called himself Captain Forester^ and claimed this Island 
for the Dowager of Sterling, whose governor he gave 
himself out to be. He had a commission dated in the 
18th year of King James's reign, but it was not signed 
by his Majesty or anybody else. Appended to it was 
an old seal, which we could not decipher. His com- 
mission embraced the whole of Long Island, together 
with five leagues round about it, as well the main- 
land as islands. He had also full authority from Mary, 
Dowager of Sterling, but this was all. Nevertheless 
the man was very consequential, and said on his first 
arrival, that he came here to see Governor Stuyve- 
sant's commission, and if that was better than his, he 
was williug to give way ; if not. Governor Stuy vesant 
must yield to him. To make the matter short, the 
Director took copies of the papers and sent the man 
to Holland in the Falconer ; but as this vessel put into 
England, the man did not reach Holland, having esca- 
j)ed there, and never troubling the captain afterwards. 



NEW NETHERLAXD. 33 

The EnglislL have since boasted of this very loudly, 
and have also given out that he had again arrived at 
Boston ; but we have not seen him. It is to be appre- 
hended that if he has come now, some new act will be 
committed, for which reason it would be well to hasten 
the redress of New Netherland.* 



Of the Fresh River. 

After fort Good Hope, begun in the year 1623,f 
on the Fresh river, was finished, some time had elapsed 
when an English bark arrived there. Jacob Van 
Curler, Commissary of the Company, by order of Di- 
rector Wouter Yan Twiller, protested against it ; but 
notwithstanding his protest, they did a year or two 
afterwards come there with some families. A protest 
was also made against them ; but it was very manifest 
that these people had little respect for it, for notwith- 
standing our protests they have finally seized and pos- 
sessed the whole of the Fresh river, and have proceeded 
so far in their shameless course as, in the year 1640, 
to seize the company's farms at the fort, paying no 
regard to the protests which we made. They have 
gone even still further, and have belabored the com- 
pany's people with sticks and heavy clubs ; and have 
forcibly thrown into the river their plows and other 
instruments, while they were on the land for the pur- 
pose of working, and have let their horses loose. The 
same things have happened very frequently. They 

* See Note A, ^os<. f A mispriut for 1633. 



V 



34 REPRESENTATION FROM 

also obtained the liogs and cows belonging to tlie fort, 
and several times sold some of tliem for tlie purpose, 
as they said, of repairing the damage. Against all 
these acts, and each one in particular, protests were 
repeatedly made; but they were met with ridicule. 
There were several letters written in Latin to their 
governors ; of which letters and protests, minutes or 
copies remain with the company's officers, from which 
a much fuller account of these transactions could be 
made. But all opposition was in vain ; for, having had 
a smack of the goodness and convenience of this river, 
and discovered the difference between the land there 
and that more easterly, they would not go back ; nor 
would they put themselves under the protection of their 
High Mightinesses, although they were respectfully 
exhorted thereto, as was desirable from the first they 
should have done. 



Of the right of the Netherlanders to the Fresh River. 

To speak from the beginning, our people had care- 
fully explored and discovered the most northerly parts 
of New Netherland, and some distance on the other 
side of Cape Cod, as it is called, before the English 
were known here, and had set up our Arms upon Cape 
Cod as an act of possession. In the year 1614, our 
traders had not only traded at the Fresh river, but 
had also ascended it, before any English had ever 
dreamed of going there ; which they did first in the 
year 1636, after our fort, the Good Hope, had been a 



NEAV NETIIERLAND. 35 

long time in esse, and most all the lands on both sides 
the river had been purchased by our people from the 
Indians, which purchase took place principally in the 
year 1632. Kievets-hoeck* was also purchased at the 
same time, by one Hans den Sluys, an officer of the 
company. At this place, the States' arms had been 
affixed to a tree in token of possession ; but the En- 
glish, who now possess the Fresh river, have torn them 
down and engraved a ridiculous face in their place. 
Whether this was done by authority or not, cannot be 
positively asserted ; it is, however, supposed that it was. 
It has been so charged upon them in several letters, 
but it has never been followed up. Besides, they have, 
contra jus gentium, per f as et nefas invaded the whole 
river, for the reason, as they say, that the land was 
lying idle and waste ; which was not true at the time 
they came, for there was already built upon the river 
a fort which continued to be possessed by a garrison. 
There was also a large brewery near the fort, belonging 
to the Dutch or the company. Most of the land was 
bought and appropriated, and the arms of their High 
Mightinesses were set up at Kievets-Hoeck, which is 
situated at the mouth of the river ; so that every thing 
was done that could be done, excej)t that the country 
was not all actually occupied. The English, therefore, 
wished to regard it the same as if it were in their power 
to establish laws for our nation in its own purchased 
lands and limits, and direct how and in what manner it 
should introduce people into the country. But it does 

* Now called Saybrook Point. Kievit, or Ueviit, is the bird pcii.it. 



\ 



36 REPRESENTATION FROM 

not turn out exactly, according to their desire and 
pleasure, that they have the right to invade and appro- 
priate these waters, lands, and jurisdiction to them- 
selves. 



Of tlie jRoden-JBerch, ly the Miglisli called New Haven., 
and other places of less importance. 

The numher of villages in the possession of the 
English, from IS^o.-^ Holland, or Cape Cod, to Stamford, 
within the limits of the Netherlanders, is about thirty, 
and they may contain five thousand men capable of 
bearing arms. Their cattle, cows, and horses, are esti- 
mated at thirty thousand ; their goats and hogs cannot 
be stated, as neither of them can be fully known, 
because there are several places which cannot well pass 
for villages, but which nevertheless are beginnings of 
villages. Among the villages, Roden-Berch,* or New 
Haven, is the first. It has a governor, contains about 
three hundred and forty families, and is one of the 
members of the United Colonies of New England, of 
which there are four in all. 

This place was begun eleven years ago, in the year 
1638, since when the people have broken off and formed 
Milford, Stratford, Stamford, and the trading house 
before spoken of, &c. 

Director Kieft has caused several protests to be 
drawn up, in Latin and in other languages, command- 

* Red-Moimtaiii. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 37 

ing tliem, by virtue of his commissions from tlie Lords 
States General, His Highness the Prince of Orange, 
and the Most Noble Directors of the Chartered West 
India Company, to desist from their proceedings and 
usurpations ; and warning them, in case they did not, 
that we would, as soon as a fit opportunity should 
present, exact of them satisfaction therefor. But it 
was hnocking at a dead mavis door, as they did not 
regard these protests, or even take any notice of them ; 
on the contrary, they have sought many subterfuges, 
circumstances, false pretenses, and sophistical arguments, 
to give color to their doings, and to throw a cloud upon 
our lawful title and valid rights, in order to trick us 
out of them. General Stuyvesant also has had many 
questions with them, growing out of this matter ; but it 
remains as it was. The utmost that they have ever 
been willing to come to, is to declare that the dispute 
could not be settled in this country, and that they 
desired and were satisfied that their High Mightinesses 
should arrange it with their sovereign. It is highly 
necessary that this should be done, inasmuch as the 
English have already seized and are in possession of 
almost half of New Netherland, which hereafter must 
be of very great importance. It is, therefore, heartily 
to be desired that their High Mightinesses will be 
pleased to take this subject into serious consideration, 
before it shall go further, and the breach become irre- 
parable. 

We must now pass to the South river, called by the 
English Delaware Bay, first speaking of the boundaries ; 
but before doing so, we cannot omit to say that there 



38 REPRESENTATION PROM 

has been liere, "botli in the time of Director Kieft and 
in tliat of General Stuyvesant, a certain Englishman, 
who called himself Sir Edward Plowden, with the title 
of Earl Palatine of New Albion, who claimed that the 
land on the west side of the North river to Virginia 
was his, by gift of King James of England ; but he 
said he did not wish to have any strife with the Dutch, 
though he was very much piqued at the Swedish 
governor, John Printz, at the South river, on account 
of some affront given him, too long to relate. He said 
that when an opportunity should offer, he would go 
there and take possession of the river. In short, it 
amounts to this, according to the claims of the English, 
that there is nothing left for the subjects of their High 
Mightinesses : one must have this far, and another that 
far, but as between themselves they never fall short.* 



Of the South River and the Boundaries there. 

As we have now come to speak of the South river 
and the most southerly portion of New Netherland, we 
will, since it is well distinguished from the other part, 
relate every thing from the beginning, and as briefly 
as is practicable. The boundaries, as we find them, 
extend to Cape Henlopen, many miles south of Cape 
Cornelius, at the latitude of thirty-eight degrees. The 
coast stretches, one course with another, west-southwest 
and west; and although this Cape Henlopen is not 



See Note B, post. 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 39 

mucli esteemed, it is, nevertheless, proper that it should 
be brought to our attention, as being well situated, not 
only in regard to the position of the country, but also 
as relates to the trade with the Indians at the South 
river, which the English and Swedes are striving after 
very hard, as we will show. When the boundaries of 
this country shall be settled, these people should with- 
out further question be ousted, and both the enjoyment 
of the productions of the land and the trade be retained 
for the subjects of their High Mightinesses. 



Of the South Bay and South River. 

The South bay and South river, by many called the 
second great river of New Netherland, is situated at 
the latitude of thirty-eight degrees and fifty-three 
minutes. It has two headlands or capes, — the more 
northerly bearing the name of Cape May, the more 
southerly, that of Cape Cornelius. The bay was called 
N"ewport-May, but at the present time is known as 
Godyn's bay. These names were given to the places 
about the time of their first discovery, before any 
others were given them. The discovery, moreover, 
took place at the same time with that of the North 
river, and by the same ship and persons, who entered 
the South bay before they came to the North river, as 
is all to be read, at length, in the ^'■Nieime Werelt " of 
Johannes de Laet. 



40 REPRESENTATION FROM 

At tlie same time that the forts were laid out on 
the North and Fresh rivers, after (zedert) the year 
1623, fort Nassau was erected upon this river, which, 
in common parlance, is called the South river. It was 
the first of the four, and was built with the same object 
and design of the others, as hereinbefore related. It 
lies on the east bank, but it would have done as well 
on the west bank, fifteen miles up the river. The bay 
runs for the most part north and south ; is called New- 
port-May or Godyn's bay ; and is nine miles long before 
you come to the river, and six miles wide, so that you 
cannot see from one side to the other. On account of 
certain bars, it is somewhat dangerous for inexperienced 
navigators, but not so for those who are acquainted 
with the channels. This bay and river is compared by 
its admirers with the river Amazon, that is, by such of 
them as have seen both ; each of which is considered 
one of the most beautiful, and the best and pleasantest 
rivers in the world, of itself and as regards others con- 
venient to it. Fourteen streams empty into this river, 
the least of them navigable for two or three miles ; and 
on both sides there are tolerably level lands of great 
extent. Two miles from Cape Cornelius, where you 
enter on the west side, lies a certain kil, which might 
be taken for an ordinary river or stream, being navi- 
gable far up, and affording a beautiful road-stead for 
ships of all burdens. There is no other like it in the 
whole bay for safety and convenience. The main 
channel for navigation runs close by the place we call 
the Hoere-kil, From whence this name is derived we 



NEW NETHERLANl). 41 

do not know,* so long is it since tliis place was taken 
and colonized by Netherlanders, years before any En- 
glish or Swedes came there. The States' arms were set 
up at this place in copper, but as they were thrown 
down by some mischievous Indians, the commissary 
there very firmly insisted upon and demanded the head 
of the offender. The Indians, not knowing otherwise, 
brought a head, saying it was his ; and the affair was 
supposed to be all settled ; but some time afterwards, 
when our people were working unsuspectingly in their 
fields, the Indians came in the guise of friendship, and 
distributing themselves among the Dutch in propor- 
tionate numbers, surprised and murdered them. By 
this means, the colony was again reduced to nothing ; 
but it was nevertheless sealed with blood and dearly 
enough bought. 

There is another kil on the east side, called the 
Varckens-kil (Hog creek),f three miles within the 
mouth of the river. Here some English had settled 
themselves ; but Director Kieft protested against their 
proceedings, and drove them away, having been assisted 
in doing so, somewhat, by the Swedes, who had agreed 
with him to keep out the English. The Swedish 
governor, considering an opportunity then offered to 
him, caused a fort to be built at this place, called Elsin- 
horg^X and manifests there great boldness towards every 

* It means harlot's creel:, and waa so called, according to the Kort Verhael, 
from a ■well-known custom of the Indians towards strangers, which was there 
practiced by them towards the Dutch who first came to that place. 

f K"ow called Salem creek. 

X Afterwards destroyed by the Lennl Lenape, on its abandonment by the 
Swedes, who left it in consequence, not of Dutch prowess, but of the mosquitoes. 

6 



42 REPRESENTATION FROM 

one, even over the company's boats. All wlio go to 
the South river, must strike the flag before this fort, 
none excepted ; and two men are sent on board to 
ascertain from whence the yachts or ships come. It is 
not much better than exercising the right of search, 
It will, to all appearance, come to this in the end. 
What authority these people can have to do this, we 
know not ; nor can we comprehend how officers of 
other potentates (as they themselves say they are, but 
what commission they have we do not yet know) can 
make themselves masters of, and assume authority over, 
land and goods belonging to and possessed by other 
people, and sealed with their blood, independently of 
the patent. The Minquas-Tcil * is the first upon the 
river, and there the Swedes have built Fort Christina. 
This place is well situated, as large ships can lie close 
against the shore to load and unload. There is, besides 
others, a place on the river called Schuylkilf (a con- 
venient and navigable stream), heretofore possessed by 
the Netherlanders ; but how is it now ? The Swedes 
have it almost entirely under their dominion. There 
are in the river several beautiful, large islands, and 
other places, which were formerly possessed by the 
Netherlanders, and which still bear the names given by 
them. These facts, with various other matters, con- 
stitute sufficient and abundant proof that the river 
belongs to the Netherlanders, and not to the Swedes, 
whose beginnings can be shown by witnesses to have 
been made only eleven years ago, in the year 1638,J 

» Christina creek. f Translated, SkulUng creek. % See Note C, poit 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 43 

Avheu one Minne-wits, who before that time had had 
the Dh'ection at the Manathans, on behalf of the West 
India Company, arrived in the river with the ship 
Kalmer-Sleutel (Key of Calmar), and the yacht Vogel- 
Gryp (Griffen), giving out to the Netherlanders who 
lived up the river, under the company, and the Heer 
Vander ISTederhorst, that he was on a voyage to the 
"West Indies, and that, passing by there, he wished to 
do some repairs and to furnish the ships with water 
and wood, and would then leave. Some time after- 
wards, some of our people going there again found 
that the Swedes had done more, and had already made 
a small garden for raising salads, pot-herbs, and the 
like. They wondered at this, and inquired of the 
Swedes what it meant, and whether they intended to 
stay there. They excused themselves by various rea- 
sons and subterfuges, but notwithstanding which it 
was supposed such was their design. Still later became 
apparent, from their building a fort, what their inten- 
tions were. Director Kieft, when he obtained inform- 
ation of the matter, protested against it, but in vain. 
It was plainly and clearly to be seen, in the progress 
of the affair, that they did not intend to leave. It is 
matter of evidence that above Magliclmclicmsie^ near 
the Sankikan-s^^ the arms of their High Mightinesses 
were erected by order of Director Kieft, as a symbol 
that the river, with all the country and the lands 



* Maghchachansie, or, as it is spelt by Campariius, MeJcansio-sippus, 'was, as 
its termination denotes, a small stream, -wliioli emptied into the Delaware on the 
east side, probably Crosswick creek at Bordentown. 

\ The Sankikans were seated at Assinpink, now Trenton. 



4J: REPRESENTATION FROM 

around tliere, were held and owned under their High 
Mightinesses. But what fruits has it produced as yet, 
other than continued derision and derogation of dig- 
nity ? For the Swedes, with intolerant insolence, have 
thrown down the arms, which are suffered to remain 
so, and this is looked upon by them, and particularly 
by their governor, as a Koman achievement. True, 
we have made several protests, as well against this 
as against other transactions ; but they have had as 
much eifect as the flying of a croio overliead; and it is 
believed that if this governor had a supply of men, 
there would be more madness in him than there has 
been in the English or any of their governors. In 
brief, in regard to the Swedes, the company's officers 
will be able to make a more pertinent explanation, as 
all the papers remain with them ; besides, it is to their 
journals we ourselves refer. 

The English have sought at different times and 
places to colonize this river, which, they say, is annexed 
to their territory, but this has as yet been prevented 
by difierent protests. We have also expelled them 
by force, well knowing that if they once settled there, 
we should lose the river or hold it with difficulty, as 
they would swarm there in great numbers. There are 
great reports daily, that the English will soon repair 
there with many families. It is certain that if they do 
come and nestle down there, they will soon possess it 
so completely, that neither Hollanders nor Swedes, in 
a short time, will have much to say ; at least, we run 
a chance of losing the whole or the greatest part of 
the river, if remarkable precaution be not used. It 
could be retained if there were a population ; but the 



NEW NETHERLAND. 45 

managers of tlie company to tliis day liave no regard 
to peopling tlie country worth tlie while, though the 
subject has been fully brought before them in several 
documents. They have been otherwise employed ; for 
it has been with this matter as with the rest, that ava- 
rice has blinded wisdom. The report now is that the 
English intend to build a village and trading-house 
there ; and, indeed, if they begin, there is nobody in 
this country who, on the company's behalf, can or appa- 
rently will make much efibrt to prevent them. Not 
longer ago than last year, several free persons,* some 
of whom were our own countrymen who had or could 
have good masters in Fatherland, wished to establish 
a trading-house and erect some breweries in the plant- 
ation, upon condition that certain privileges and ex- 
emptions should be extended to them ; but this was 
refused by the general, saying, that he could not do 
it, not having any order or authority from the noble 
lords mayors ; but, if they were willing to begin there 
without privileges, they could do so. And when we 
represented to his Honor that such were offered by 
our neighbors all around us, if we would only declare 
ourselves willing to be called members of their govern- 
ment, and that this place ran a thousand dangers from 
the Swedes and English, his Honor answered that it 
was well known to be as we said (as he himself did, 
in fact, well know), and that the reason was also before 
us, that the orders which he had from the mayors f 

* Free persons ivere those who come to TSew Netherland, not as colonists 
under the patroons, or as employés of the West India Company, but on their 
own account. 

f Mauagei's, called Majors. 



46 REPRESEKTATION FROM 

were so, and lie could not answer for them. Now, we 
are ignorant in these matters, but one thing or the 
other must be true, either it is the fault of the director 
or managers, or of both of them. However it may be, 
one shifts the blame upon the other, and between them 
both every thing goes to ruin. Foreigners enjoy the 
country and fare very well ; they laugh at us if we say 
anything; they enjoy privileges and exemptions which, 
if our Netherlanders had enjoyed as they do, would, 
without doubt — next to the help of God, without which 
we are powerless — ^have enabled our people to flourish 
as well or better than they do ; ergo^ the company or 
their officers have hitherto been and are still the cause 
of its not faring better with the country. On account 
of their cupidity and bad management there is no 
hope, so long as the land is under their government, 
that it will go on any better ; but it will grow worse. 
This, however, is not the proper place to speak of these 
things. 



Of the Situation and Goodness of the Waters. 

Having given an account of the situation of the 
country and its boundaries, and having consequently 
spoken of the location of the rivers, it will not be 
foreign to our purpose to add a word as to the good- 
ness and convenience of the waters; which are salt, 
brackish, or fresh, according to their locality. There 
are in New Netherland four principal rivers; the 
most southerly is usually called the . South river, and 
the bay at its entrance, Godyn's Bay. It is so called, 



■ NEW NETHERLAND. 47 

not because it runs to tlie south, but because it is tlie 
most soutlierly river in New Netherland. Anotlier, 
wMcli this lies south of or nearest to, and which is the 
most important as regards trade and population, is 
called Rio Montanjes^ from certain mountains, and 
Mauritius river, but generally, the North river, because 
it reaches farthest north. The third is the East river, 
so called because it runs east of the Manathans. This 
is regarded by many not as a river but as a bay, be- 
cause it is extremely wide in some places, and connects 
at both ends with the sea. We, however, consider it 
a river, and such it is commonly reckoned. ■ The 
fourth is called the Fresh river, because the water is 
for the most part fresh, more so than the others. Be- 
sides these rivers, there are many bays, havens, 
and inlets, very convenient and useful, some of 
which might well be classed among rivers. There 
are numerous bodies of water inland, some large, 
others small, besides navigable Mis like rivers, 
and many creeks very advantageous for the pur- 
pose of navigating through the country, as the map 
of New Netherland will prove. There are various 
water-falls and streams, kils fit to erect miUs of all 
kinds upon for the use of man, and innumerable small 
rivulets over the whole country, like veins in the 
body; but they are all fresh water, except some on 
the sea shore, which are salt and fresh or brackish, 
but very good both for wild and domestic animals to 
drink. The surplus waters are lost in the rivers or in 
the sea. Besides all these there are fountains without 
number, and springs all over, even at places where 



48 REPRESENTATION FROM 

Avater would not be expected ; as on clifts and rocks, 
whence spring veins are certain to issue. Some of 
them are worthy of being remembered, not only be- 
cause they are all (except in the thickets) very clear 
and pure, but because many have these properties, that 
in the winter they smoke from heat, and in summer 
are so cool that the hands can hardly be endured in 
them on account of the cold, not even in the hottest 
of the summer; which circumstance makes them 
pleasant for the use of man and beast, who can 
partake of them without danger; for if any one 
drink thereof, it does him no harm although it be 
very warm weather. Thus much of the proprie- 
torship, location, goodness, and fruitfulness of this 
province, in which particulars, as far as our little expe- 
rience extends, it need yield to no province in Europe. 
As to what concerns trade, — in which Europe, and 
especially Netherland is pre-eminent, — it not only lies 
very convenient and proper for it, but if there were 
inhabitants, it would be found to have more com- 
modities, of and in itself, to export to other countries 
than it would have to import from them. These things 
considered, it would be little labor for the mind to 
estimate and compute exactly what importance this 
naturally noble province is to the Netherland nation, 
what service it could render it in future, and what a 
retreat it would be for all the needy in Netherland, 
as well of high and middle, as of low degree ; for it 
is much easier for all men of enterprise to obtain a 
livelihood here than in Netherland. 

We cannot sufficiently thank the Fountain of all 



NEW XETHERLANI). 49 

Goodness for His liaving led us into ucli a f ruitful 
and liealtliful land, whicli we, with our numerous sins, 
still heaped up here daily, beyond measure, have not 
deserved. We are also in the highest degree be- 
holden to the Indians, who not only have given up to 
us this good and fruitful country, and for a trifle 
yielded us the ownership, but also have enriched us 
with their valuable trade, so that there is no one in 
New Netherland, or who trades to New Netherland, 
without obligation to them. Great is our disgrace 
now, and happy should we have been, had we acknowl- 
edged these benefits as we ought, and had we striven 
to impart, as much as was in our power, to the Indians 
the Eternal Good, in return for what they divided 
with us. It is to be feared that at the Last Day 
they will stand up against us for this injury. Lord 
of Rulers ! forgive us for not having conducted 
therein more according to our reason; give ns also 
the means, and so direct our hearts, that we in future 
may acquit ourselves as we ought for the salvation of 
our own souls and of theirs, and for the magnifying 
of thy Holy Name, for the sake of Christ ! Amen ! 

To speak with deference, it is proper to look be- 
yond the trouble which will be incurred in adjusting 
the boundaries and the first cost of increasing the pop- 
ulation of this country, and to consider that beginnings 
are difScult, and that sowing would be irksome 
if the sower were not cheered with the hope of 
reaping. "We trust, and so assure ourselves, that the 
very great experience of their High Mightinesses will 
dictate better remedies than we are able to suggest. 
■7 



50 REPRESENTATION FROM 

But it may be that their High Mightinesses and some 
other friends before whom this may come, may think 
strange that we speak as highly of this place as we 
do, and as we know to be true, and yet complain of 
want and poverty, seek relief, assistance, redress, les- 
sening of command, population, and the like, and show 
that the country is in a poor and ruinous condition, — 
yea, so much so, as that without special aid and assist- 
ance it will utterly fall off and pass under foreign rule. 
It will therefore be necessary to point out the true 
reasons and causes why New JSTetherland is in so bad 
a state, which we will do as simply and truly as pos- 
sible, according to the facts, as we have seen, experi- 
enced, and heard them ; and, as this statement will 
encounter much opposition and reproach from many 
persons who may take offense at it, we humbly pray 
their High Mightinesses and all well-wishers, that 
they do not let the truth yield to any falsehoods, in- 
vented and embellished for the purpose, and that they 
receive no other testimony against this relation than 
that of such impartial persons as have not had, either 
directly or indirectly, any hand therein, and are not 
injuriously affected by the loss of New Netherland, or 
otherwise under obligation to it. With this remark, 
we proceed to the reasons and sole cause of the e^'il 
which we correctly, but briefly and indistinctly, stated 
in the beginning of our petition to their High Mighti- 
nesses. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 51 

Of the Reasons and Causes lohy and Jiow New Nether- 
land is so decayed. 

As "we shall speak of the reasons and causes which 
have brought New Netherland into the ruinous condi- 
tion in which it is now found to be, we deem it neces- 
sary to state the very first difficulties, and for this 
purpose regard it as we see and find it in our daily 
experience. As far as our understanding goes, to de- 
scribe it in one word (and none better presents itself), 
it is had government^ with its attendants and conse- 
quences, that is the true and ovlIj foundation stone of 
the decay and ruin of New Netherland. This govern- 
ment, from which so much abuse proceeds, is two-fold, 
that is, in the Fatherland by the managers, and in 
this country.* "We shall first, briefly, and in some 
order, point out the mistakes in Fatherland, and after- 
wards proceed to show how abuses have grown up and 
obtained strength here. 

The managers of the company adopted a wrong 
course at first, and, as we think, had more regard for 
their own interest that for the welfare of the country, 
trusting rather to evil than just counsels. This is 
proven by the unnecessary expenses incurred from 
time to time, the heavy accounts of New Netherland,f 
the registering of manors — in which business most of 
the managers themselves engaged, and in reference to 



* viz. by tlie director and council. 

I Tlie West India Company had, between the years 1626 and 1644, expended 
for New Netherland the snm of $220,000. 



52 REPRESENTATION FROM 

whicli they have regulated the trade, — and. finally, the 
not peopling the country. It seems as if from the first, 
the company have sought to stock this land with their 
own employes ; which was a great mistake, for when 
their time was out they returned, home, taking nothing 
with them, except a little in their purses and a bad 
name for the country, in regard to its means of suste^ 
nance and in other respects. In the mean time there 
was no profit, but on the contrary heavy monthly ex- 
penditures, as the accounts of New Netherland will 
show. 

Had the Honorable West India Company, in the 
beginning, sought population, instead of running to 
great expense for unnecessary things, which under 
more favorable circumstances might have been suitable 
and very proper, the account of New Netherland would 
not have been so large as it now is, caused by building 
the ship New Netherland at an excessive outlay, by 
erecting three exjDensive mills, by brick-making, by 
tar-burning, by ash-burning, by salt-making, and like 
operations, which through bad management and calcu- 
lation have all gone to nought, or come to little ; but 
which, nevertheless, have cost much. Had the same 
money been used in bringing people and importing 
cattle, the country would now have been of great 
value. 

The land itself is much better, and it is more con- 
veniently situated than that which the English possess ; 
and if there were no interference with individual gain 
and private trade, there would be no danger of their 
surpassing us as far as they do. 



NEW NETHEELAND. 53 

Had the first exemptions been truly observed, ac- 
cording to tlieir intention, and liad they not heen car- 
ried out with particular views, certainly the friends of 
New Netherland would have exerted themselves more 
to take people there and make settlements. The other 
conditions which were introduced have always dis- 
couraged individuals and kept them down, so that 
those who were acquainted with the business dare not 
attempt it. It is very true that the company have 
brought over some persons ; but they have not con- 
tinued to do so, and it therefore has done little good. 
It was not begun properly ; for it was merely acci- 
dental, and was not intended. 

It is impossible for us to state pertinently wherein 
and how often the company have acted injuriously to 
this country. They have not approved of our own 
countrymen settling the land, as is shown in the case 
of Jacob Walingen and his people at the Fresh river, 
and quite recently in the cases at the South river ;— 
while, at the same time, foreigners were permitted to 
go there without opposition or protest. It is known 
they are censurable in other respects ; the garrisons 
are not kept complete, conformably to the exemptions, 
and thus the cause of New ISTetherland's bad condi- 
tions lurks as well in Netherland as here. Yea, the 
seeds of war, according to the declaration of Director 
Kieffc, were first sown by the Fatherland ; for he said 
he had express orders to exact the contribution from 
the Indians ; which would have been very well if the 
land had been peopled, but as it was, it was premature. 

Trade, without which, when it is legitimate, no 



61 REPRESENTATION FROM 

country is prosperous, is by tlieir acts so decayed, that 
tlie like is nowliere else. It is more suited for slaves 
than freemen, ia consequence of the restrictions upon 
it, and the annoyances which accompany the exercise 
of the right of inspection. "We approve of inspection, 
however, so far as relates to contraband. 

This contraband trade has ruined the country, 
though it is now excluded from every part of it by 
orders given by the managers to their officers. These 
orders should be executed without partiality, which is 
not always the case. The Recognition* runs high, and 
of inspection and confiscation there is no lack ; hence, 
true trade is entirely diverted, except a little, which 
exists pt'o forma, as a cloak to carry on smuggling. In 
the mean time the Christians are treated almost like 
Indians, in the purchase of the necessaries with which 
they cannot dispense. This causes great complaint, 
distress, and poverty: as, for example, the merchants 
sell those goods which are liable to little depreciation, 
at a hundred per cent, and more profit, when there is 
no particular demand or scarcity of them. And the 
traders who come with small cargoes, and others en- 
gaged in the business, buy them up from the merchants 
and sell them again to the common man, who cannot 
do without them, oftentimes at a hundred per cent, 
advance, and higher or lower according as it suits them. 
Upon liquors, which are liable to much leakage, they 
take more, and those who buy from them retail them 
in the same manner as we have described in regard to 

* A tax in the nature of an export Awty. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 55 

dry wares, and generally at as mucli profit, so that the 
goods are in first, second, and sometimes in third hands, 
at one and two hundred per cent, and more advance. 
We are not able to think of all the practices which are 
contrived for advancing individual gain. Little atten- 
tion is given to populating the land. The people, 
moreover, have been driven away by harsh and unrea- 
sonable proceedings, for which their Honors gave the 
orders ; for the managers wrote to Director Kieft to 
prosecute when there was no offense, and to consider 
a partial offense (^faute) an entire one, and so forth. It 
has also to be seen how the letters of the Eight Men 
were treated, and what followed thereupon; besides 
there were many ruinous orders and instructions which 
are not known to us. But leaving this at present, with 
now and then a word, as it is scarcely worth relating, 
— let us proceed to examine how their officers and 
directors have conducted themselves from time to time, 
having played with the managers as well as with the 
people, as a cat does with a mouse. It would be pos- 
sible to relate their management from the beginning, 
but as most of us were not here then and therefore 
not eye-witnesses, and as a long time has passed where- 
by it has partly escaped recollection, and as in our 
view it was not so bad then as afterwards when the 
land was made free and freemen began to increase, we 
will pass by the beginning, and let Mr. Lubbert van 
Dincklaghen, Vice Director of New Netherland, de- 
scribe the government of Director Wouter Van Twil- 
ler, of which he is known to have information, and will 
only speak of the last two miserable and impoverished 



56 REPRESENTATION FROM 

admiuistrations. We would speak well of the govern- 
ment under Director Kieffc, wlio is now no more ; but 
tlie evil of it lives after him ; and of that under Direc- 
tor Stuyvesant, which still stands, if indeed that may- 
be called standing, which lies completely under foot. 

The directors here, though far from their masters, 
were close by their profit. They have always known 
how to manage their own matters with little loss, and 
under pretext of the public business. They have also 
conducted themselves just as if they were the sove- 
reigns of the country. As they desired to have it, so 
always has it been ; and as they willed, so was it done. 
" The Managers," they say, " are masters in Fatherland, 
but we are masters in this land." As they understand 
it so it is, there is no appeal. And it has not been 
difficult for them hitherto to maintain this doctrine in 
practice ; for the people were few and for the most part 
very simple and uninformed, and besides, had transac- 
tions with the directors every day. As there were 
some intelligent men among them, ^vlio could go ti^Jon 
their own feet^ them it was sought to oblige. They 
could not understand at first the arts of the directors, 
which were always subtle and dark, inasmuch as they 
were very frequently successful and for a long time 
quite advantageous. Director Kieft said himself and 
let it be said also by others, that he was sovereign in 
this country, the same as the Prince in Netherland. 
This was told him several times here, and he never 
made any particular objection to it. The refusing to 
allow appeals, and other similar acts, prove clearly that 
in regard to us it is just as they say and not otherwise. 



NEW NETIIERLAXl). 57 

The present director does tlie same, and in tlie denial 
of appeal, he is at home. He asserts the maxim, " The 
Prince is above the law," and applies it so boldly to his 
own person that he is even ashamed of it himself. 
These directors having, then, the power in their own 
hands, can do and have done what they chose accord- 
ing to their good will and pleasure ; and whatever was, 
was right, because it was agreeable to them. It is well 
known that those who accept power, and use it to 
command what they will, frequently command and will 
more than they ought, whether it appear well or not. 
So, too, there are always some persons who applaud 
such conduct, some out of a desire to make mischief, 
others from fear, and yet still complain, with Jan Ver- 
gas, de dementia duds — of the clemency of the duke. 
But in order that we give nobody cause to suspect that 
we hlow any too liard, it will be proper to illustrate by 
examples the government of Mr. Director Kieft at its 
close, and the administration of Mr. Director Stuyve- 
sant just prior to the time of our departure thence. 
We frankly admit, however, that we will not be able 
to speak of them fully, because they were conducted 
so secretly and with such duplicity and craft. "We will 
nevertheless expose some of their proceedings accord- 
ing to our ability, and thus let the lion be judged of 
from his paw. 

Casting our eyes upon the government of Director 
Kieft, the church first meets us, and we will therefore 
speak of the public property ecclesiastical and civil. 
But as this man is now dead, and some of his manage- 
ment and doings are freely represented by one Jochem 



58 REPRESENTATION FROM 

Pietersz Cuyter and Cornelis Melyn * we will dispose 
of tMs point as briefly as we possibly can. 

Before the time that Director Kieft brought the 
unnecessary war upon the country, his principal aim 
and endeavors were to provide well for himself and to 
leave a great name after him, but without any expense 
to himself or the company. He never did any thing 
remarkable for the country by which it was improved. 
Thus, he considered the erection of a church a very 
necessary public work, the more so as it was in con- 
templation to build one, at that time, at Renselaers 
Wyck. With this view he communicated with the 
church wardens, — of which body he himself was one, 
— and they willingly agreed to and seconded the pro- 
ject. The place where it should stand was then de- 
bated. The director contended that it should be 
placed in the fort, and there it was erected in spite of 
the others, and indeed as suitably as a fifth wheel to a 
wagon ; for, besides that the fort is small and lies upon a 
point of land which must be very valuable in case of an 
increase of population, the church ought to be owned 
by the congregation at whose cost it was built. It also 
intercepts and turns off the south wind from the grist- 
mill, which stands close by ; for which reason there is 
frequently in summer a want of bread, from its inabil- 
ity to grind, though not from this cause alone. The 
mill is neglected, and, in consequence of remaining idle 
most of the time, has become considerably rotten, so 



* Cuyter and Melyn had arraigned Kieft before Stuyvesant, and upon his ac- 
qiiittal had appealed to the States General in Netherland, whither they had 
been banished on that account. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 59 

that it cannot now be made to go witli more tlian two 
arms, and it has been so for nearly five years. But to 
return to the church, — from which the grist-mill has 
somewhat diverted us, — the director then resolved to 
build a church, and at the place where it suited him ; 
but he was in want of money, and was at a loss how to 
obtain it. It happened about this time that the min- 
ister, Everadus Bogardus, gave his daughter in mar- 
riage ; and the occasion of the wedding the director 
considered a good opportunity for his purpose. So 
after the fourth or fifth round of drinking, he set 
about the business, and, he himself showing a liberal 
example, let the wedding-guests subscribe what they 
were willing to give towards the church. All then 
with light heads subscribed largely, competing with 
one another ; and although some well repented it when 
they got home, they were nevertheless compelled to 
pay, — nothing could avail to prevent it. The church 
■was then, contrary to every consideration of propriety, 
placed in the fort. The honor and ownership of that 
work must be judged of from the inscription, which is 
in our opinion ambiguous, thus reading: " 1642. "Wil- 
lem KlEFT, DiEECTEUR GeNEEAEL, HEEFT BE GhEMEEN- 

TE DESEN Tempel doen bouwek." (1642. Williain 
Kieft^ Director General^ has caused the congregation to 
build this church^. But whatever be intended by 
the inscription, the people nevertheless paid for the 
church.* 

We must now speak of the property belonging to 

* See Note D, post. 



60 KEPEESENTATION FROM 

the churcli ; and, to do tlie truth no violence, we do not 
know that there has ever been any, or that the church 
has any income excej)t what is given to it. There has 
never been any exertion made either by the company 
or by the director to obtain or provide any. 

Tlie hotol has heen going round a long time for the 
purpose of erecting a common school, and it has been 
built with words ; but as yet the first stone is not laid. 
Some materials only are provided. The money, never- 
theless, given for the purpose has all found its way out, 
and is mostly spent ; so that it falls short, and no per- 
manent benefit has as yet been derived from it. 

For the poor, who are, however, otherwise well pro- 
vided for, nothing is done except the alms collected 
among the people, and some fines and donations of the 
inhabitants. A considerable portion of this money is 
in the possession of the company, who have been 
spending it from time to time, and have promised, for 
a year and upwards, to pay interest. Little attention, 
however, is given to this promise, so that neither prin- 
cipal nor interest can be obtained from them. 

Flying reports about asylums for orphans, for the 
sick and aged, and the like, have occasionally been 
heard; but as yet no attempt, order, or direction has 
been made in relation to them. From all these facts, 
then, it sufficiently appears that scarcely any proper 
care or diligence has been used by the company or its 
officers for any ecclesiastical property whatever, — at 
least, nothing as far as is known, — from the beginning 
to this time ; but, on the contrary, great industry and 
exertion have been used to attach and bind closely to 



NEW KETIIERLAND, 61 

tHem their minions, as we shall hereafter at the proper 
time relate. And now let us proceed to the consider- 
ation of what public measures of a civil character had 
been adopted up to the time of our departure, in order 
to make manifest the diligence and care of the direc- 
tors in this particular. 

There was not at first, under the government of 
Director Kieft, so much opportunity as there has since 
been; — because the recognition of the peltries was 
then paid in the Fatherland, and the freemen gave 
nothing for excise ; but after that public calamity, the 
rash war, was brought upon us, the recognition of the 
peltries began to be collected in this country, and a 
beer-excise was sought to be established, about which 
a conference was had with the Eight Men * who were 
then chosen from the people. As they did not under- 
stand it, they desired to know under what regulations 
and upon what footing it would take place, and how 
long it would continue. Director Kieft promised that 
it should not continue longer than until a ship of the 
company should arrive with a new director, or until 
the war should be at an end. Although it was very 
much distrusted by all, and was not consented to, yet 
he introduced it by force. The brewers who would 
not agree to it, had their beer given a prize to the sol- 
diers. It has been continued in force ever since, and 
has caused great strife and discontent. 



* The Eight Men and the Twelve Men were chosen during the Indian difficul- 
ties, the latter in 1641, and the former in 1643, to advise with the director, like 
the Nine Men sxibsequently. 



62 REPRESENTATION PROM 

From this time forward, the director began to 
divide the people and to set up party. Those who 
were on his side could do nothing amiss, however bad 
it might be ; — those who were opposed to him were 
always wrong in whatever they did well ; and the order 
to reckon half an offense a whole one was then en- 
forced. The jealousy of the director was so great, 
that he could not bear without suspicion that impar- 
tial pei'sons should visit his partisans. 

After the war was, as the director himself said, 
finished, — though in our opinion it will never be 
finished until the country is populated, — everyone 
hoped that this impost would be removed ; but Direc- 
tor Kieft put off the removal until the arrival of a new 
director, who was delayed for some time thereafter. 
When, finally, he did appear, it was like the crowning 
of Rehoboam ; for, instead of abolishing the beer-excise, 
his first business was to impose a wine-excise and other 
intolerable burdens ; so that some of the commonalty, 
as they had no remedy, were constrained to remon- 
strate against the same. Instead, however, of obtain- 
ing the relief which they expected, they received 
abuse from the director. Subsequently a written an- 
swer was given them, that a director like him usually had 
such large and ample powers that poor common people, 
as are here, made mistakes in relation to them, and should 
submit to them without relief. Further attempts have 
accordingly been made from time to time to introduce 
new taxes and duties. In fine it was so managed in 
Dh'ector Kieft's time, that a large yearly sum was 
received from the recognition and other sources, calcu- 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 63 

lated to amount annually to 16,000 guilders,* besides 
the recognition which was paid in the Fatherland, and 
which was paid in effect here by the poor commonalty ; 
for the goods were thereby run up exorbitantly high 
and sold to them. In Director Stuyvesant's adminis- 
tration the revenue has reached a much higher sum, 
and it is estimated that about 30,000 guilders f are 
now derived yearly from the people, by recognitions, 
confiscations, excise, and other taxes. Though it is not 
right that the more one has the more he should have, 
yet this was submitted to in order to give as much as 
possible, when it was designed for the public weal. 
And, whereas in all the proclamations it was promised 
and declared that the money should be employed for 
laudable and necessary public works, let us now look 
for a moment and see what laudable public works 
there are in this country, and what fruits all the dona- 
tions and contributions have hitherto borne. But, not 
to err herein, is it not necessary that we should know 
what goods and effects belong to the Honorable Com- 
pany as its own ? for what belongs to it particularly is 
not public. The company's effects in this country 
may, perhaps, with forts, cannon, ammunition, ware- 
houses, dwelling-houses, work-shops, horses, cattle, 
boats, and whatever else there may be, amount to from 
60,000 to 70,000 guilders ;:|: and it is very probable 
that the debts against it are considerably more. But, 
passing these by, let us turn our attention to the pub- 
lic property, and see where the money from time to 

* $6,400. t fl2,000. t Fi'oni $24,000 to $28,000. 



64 REPRESENTATION FROM 

time has been used. According to the j^roclamations 
during the administration of Director Kieft, if we 
rightly consider and examine them all, we cannot learn 
or discover that any thing — we say any tiling^ large 
or small — worth relating, was done, built or made, 
which concerned or belonged to the commonalty, the 
church excepted, whereof we have heretofore spoken. 
Yea, it has gone on so badly and negligently, that 
nothing has ever been designed, understood, or done 
that gave appearance of content to the people, even 
externally; but on the contrary, what came from the 
commonalty has even been mixed up with the effects 
of the company, and even the company's property and 
means have been everywhere neglected, in order to 
make friends, to secure witnesses, and to avoid accusers 
about the management of the war. The negroes, also, 
who came from Tamandare,* were sold for pork and 
peas, from the proceeds of which something wonderful 
was to be performed, but they just dripped through 
the fingers. There are, also, various other negroes in 
this country, some of whom have been made free for 
their long service ; but their children have remained 
slaves, though it is contrary to the laws of every peo- 
ple that any one born of a Christian mother should be 
a slave and be compelled to remain in servitude. It is 
impossible to relate every thing that has happened. 
Whoever did not give his assent and approval was 
watched, and, when it was convenient, was summoned. 

* The name of a bay on tlie coast of Brazil, where the Dutch Admiral, Lich- 
thart, obtained a signal triumph over the Portuguese in a naval engagement, on 
the 9th of September, 1645. 



NEW NETHEELAND. 65 

We submit to all intelligent persons, to consider what 
fruit this has borne, and what a way this was to obtain 
good testimony. Men are by nature covetous, espe- 
cially those who are needy ; and of this we will here- 
after adduce some few proofs, when we come to speak of 
Director Kieft's government particularly. But to pro- 
ceed now to the administration of Director Stuy vesant, 
and to see how aifairs have been conducted up to the 
time of our departure. Mr. Stuyvesant has most all 
the time from his first arrival up to our leaving, been 
busy building, laying masonry, making, breaking, re- 
pairing, and the like, but generally in matters of the 
company, and with little profit to it ; for upon some 
things more was spent than they were worth ; and 
though, at the first, he put in order the church, which 
came into his hands very much out of repair, and 
shortly afterwards made a wooden wharf, both of 
which are very serviceable and convenient, yet after 
this time we do not know that any thing has been 
done or made that is entitled to the name of a public 
work, though there has been income enough, as is to be 
seen in the statement of the yearly revenue. Nothing 
more was afterwards attempted, as is the case with 
dropsical people. Thus in a short time very great dis- 
content has sprung up on all sides, not only among the 
burghers, who had little to say, but also among the 
company's officers themselves; so that various protests 
were made by them on account of the expense and 
wast^ consequent upon unnecessary councilors, officers, 
servants, and the like, who are not known by the may- 
ors, and also on account of the moneys and means 
9 



è^ 



66 REPRESENTATION FROM 

wMcli were given in common, being privately appro- 
priated and used. But it was all in vain, there was 
very little or no amendment ; and the greater the en- 
deavors to help, restore, and raise up every thing, the 
worse has it been ; for pride has ruled when justice 
dictated otherwise, just as if it were disgracefid to 
follow advice, and as if every thing should come from 
one head. The fruits of this conduct can speak and 
bear testimony of themselves. It has been so now so 
long, that every day serves the more to condemn it. 
Previously to the 23d of July, 1649, nothing had been 
done concerning weights and measures, or the like ; but 
at that time they notified the people that in August 
then next ensuing, an order would be made stating 
when the fiscal would do something about it, which 
was as much as to say, ^oJlen Jie toould give tJie pigeons 
drinh. There is frequently much discontent and dis- 
cord among the people on account of weights and 
measures, and if they be not regulated nothing can be 
right. It is also believed that some large consciences 
have two sets of them, but we cannot affirm the fact. 
As to the corn measure, the company itself has always 
been suspected ; but who dare lisp it ? The payment 
in Zeewant, which is the currency here, has never been 
placed upon a good footing, although the commonalty 
requested it, and showed how it should be regulated, 
assigning numerous reasons therefor. But it always 
produced strife and discontent ; and if any thing were 
said before the director of these matters, more^han 
pleased him, very wicked and spiteful words were re- 
turned. Those, moreover, who made it their business 



NE-W NETIIERLAXn. G7 

to speak to liim of sucli things were, if he were in no 
good fit, very freely berated as clowns and bear- 
skinners. 

The fort under which we shelter ourselves, and 
from, which, as it seems, all authority proceeds, lies like 
a mole heap or a tottering wall, on which there is not 
one gun-carriage or one piece of cannon in a suitable 
frame or on a good platform. From the first it has 
been declared that it should be repaired, laid in five 
angles, and put in royal condition. The commonalty's 
men have been addressed for money for the purpose, 
but they excused themselves on the ground that the 
people were poor. Everyone was discontented, and 
feared that if the director once had the fort to rely 
upon, he would be more cruel and severe. It is left 
sticking between them. He will doubtless know how 
to lay the blame upon the commonalty who are inno- 
cent, with much circumstance, although the director 
wished to have the money from them, and for that 
purpose pretended to have an order from their High 
Mightinesses. Had the director laid out the fourth 
part of the money which was collected from the com- 
monalty during his time, for that purpose, it certainly 
would not have fallen short, as the wine excise was ex- 
pressly laid for that object. But it was sought, in a 
thousand ways, to shear the sheep though the wool was not 
yet groion. In regard, then, to public works, there is 
little difference between Director Kieft and Director 
Stuy vesant ; for, after the church was built, the former 
was negligent, and made it a personal matter against 
those who looked him in the eye. The latter has had 



REPRESENTATION FROM 



mucli more opportunity to assist tlie commonalty than 
his predecessor had, for he has had no war on his 
hands. He is also unlike his predecessor, in having 
been more diligent and bitter in looking up causes of 
prosecution against his innocent opponents. 



The Administration of Director Kieft in particular. 

Sufficient has been said of what Director Kieft did 
in regard to the church and its affairs, and in regard 
to the state, such as buildings and taxes or revenue. 
It remains for us to proceed to the council-house, and 
produce thence some examples, as we promised. "We 
will, in doing so, endeavor to be brief. 

The council then consisted of Director Kieft and 
Monsieur la Montague. The director had two votes, 
and Monsieur la Montague one ; and it was a high 
crime to appeal from their judgments. Cornelis van 
der Hoykens sat with them as fiscal,* and Cornelis 
van Tienhoven as secretary; and whenever any thing 
extraordinary occurred, the director allowed some, 
whom it pleased him, — officers of the company for the 
most part, — to be summoned in addition ; but that sel- 
dom happened. Nevertheless it gave discontent. The 
Twelve Men, and afterwards the Eight, had in lawful 
matters neither vote nor advice ; but were chosen in 
view of the war and some other occurrences, to serve 
as cloaks and cats-paws. Otherwise, they were of no 

* Prosecuting Attorney. His name is usually spelt Van der Huyghens. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 69 

consideration; and were little respected if they op- 
posed at all tlie views of the director, who himself 
imagined, and indeed wished to make others believe, 
that he was sovereign, and that it was absolutely in his 
power to do and permit any thing. He little regarded 
the safety of the people as the supreme law, as clearly 
appeared in the war; although when the spit was 
turned in the ashes, it was sought by cunning and 
numerous certificates and petitions to shift the blame 
upon others. But that happened so because the war 
was carried too far. Everyone laid the damage and 
the blood which was shed to his account. La Mon- 
tague said that he had protested against it, and was 
concerned in it at first against his will and to his great 
regret, and that afterwards, when according to his 
judgment it was best to do so, he had pretended to 
assist. The secretary, Cornells van Tienhoven, also 
said that he had no hand in the matter, and nothing 
had been done by liim in regard to it except by the 
express orders of the director. But this was not be- 
lieved, for there are those Avho have heard La Mon- 
tague say that if the secretary had not brought a false 
report the affair would never have happened.* There 
are others also who know this, aiid everyone believes 
it to be so ; and indeed it has plausibility. Fiscal van 
der Hoykens was not trusted, on account of his drink- 
ing, wherein all his science consists. He had also no 



* He had been sent to Pavonia [Hoboken] to reconnoitre the position of the 
Indians, 



70 REPRESENTATION FROM 

experience liere, and in the beginning frequently de- 
nounced the war as being against his will. So that the 
blame rests, and must rest, only upon the director and 
Secretary Tienhoven. The director was entrusted 
with the highest authority ; and if anybody advised 
him to the land's ruin, he was not bound to follow the 
advice. He afterwards endeavored to shift the burden 
from his own neck upon the people ; who, however, ex- 
cuse themselves, although, in our judgment, they are 
not all entirely innocent. The cause of this war we 
conceive to have been the exacting of the contribution 
(for which the director said he had the order of the 
mayors), and his own ungovernable passions, which 
showed themselves principally in private. But th^re 
are friends whom this business intimately concerns ; and 
as they have already undertaken it, we will leave the 
matter with them, and proceed to adduce one or two 
proofs disclosing the aspiration after sovereignty. Pass- 
ing by many cases for the sake of brevity, we have 
that of one Francis Doughty, an English minister, and 
of Arnoldus van Herdenberch, a free merchant. But 
as these cases appear in the matters to come before 
their High Mightinesses in full conclave, we will merely 
give a summary of them. This minister, Francis 
Doughty, during the first troubles in England, in order 
to escape them, came to New England. But he found 
that he had got from the pan into the fire. Wherefore, 
in order that he might, in conformity with the Dutch 
reformation, have freedom of conscience, which, con- 
trary to his expectation, he missed in New England, he 
betook himself to the protection of the Dutch. An 



NEW NETHERLAND. 71 

absolute ground-brief,* with manorial privileges, was 
granted to him by the director. He had increased his 
settlement, in the course of one year, by the addition of 
several families; but the war coming on, they were 
driven from their lands, with the loss of some men and 
many cattle, besides most all their houses and what 
other property they had. They afterwards returned 
and remained a while ; but consuming more than they 
were able to raise, they came to Manathans, where all 
the inhabitants at that time had fled ; and there Master 
Doughty officiated as a minister. After the flame of 
war was out and the peace was concluded, — but in such 
a manner that no one much relied upon it, — some of 
the people again returned to their lands. The director 
would have teen glad, in order that all things should 
be completely restored, if this man liad done the same, 
and had gone back upon his land ; — but inasmucli as 
the peace was doubtful, and he had not wherewith to 
begin, jMaster Doughty was in no haste. He went, 
however, sometime afterwards, and dwelt there half a 
year, but again left it. As peace was made, and in 



* Conveyance. Mespat cv Maspeth, which ^vaa thus conveyed, is in the 
town of JSTewtown, in Queenc county. Douglity was one cf the first purchasers 
of Taunton, Mass., in IBSY. (Baylies' '"few Plymouth, i. 288). He was, driTcn 
fi-om New England because he held that " chiljren who were of baptized pa- 
rents — anci 30 Abraham's children — ought to be baptized " (Lechford's " Plaine 
Dealing," 40-41). In September, 1666, his son brought a suit to recover his un- 
paid salary as Miinister at Flushing. An order of tlie town court rr&s produced, 
dated February 2, leiT, to assess the inhabitants of the town for the salary. It 
was given in evidence that the town had been compelled by Stuyvesant to sign 
the articles for the minister, he taking them one after another in a room, and 
threatening them if they did not. The court ordered a paz't of the money to 
be paid. ' • 



72 EEPRESENTATION FROM 

tope that some others would make a village there, a 
suit was brought against the minister, and carried on 
so far, that his land was confiscated. Master Doughty, 
feeling himself aggrieved, appealed from the sentence. 
The director answered, his sentence could not be ap- 
pealed from, but must avail absolutely; and caused 
the minister for that remark to be imprisoned twenty- 
four hours, and then to pay 25 guilders. We have 
always considered this an act of tyranny, and regarded 
it as a token of sovereignty. The matter of Arnoldus 
van Ilerdenberch was very like it in its termination. 
After Zeger Theunisz was murdered by the Indians in 
the Beregat^' and the yacht had returned to the Mana- 
thans, Arnoldus van Ilardenbergh was, with two oth- 
ers, appointed by the director and council, curators 
over the estate, and the yacht was searched. Some 
goods were found in it which were not inventoried, 
whereupon the fl.scal v^ent to law with the curators, 
and claimed that the goods were confiscable to the 
company. The curators resisted, and gave Herden- 
berch charge of the ruatter. After some proceedings 
the goods were condemned. As he found himself now 
acting in behalf of the common owners, he appealed 
to such judges as they should choose for the purpose. 
The same game was then played over again. It was a 
high crime. The fiscal made great pretensions, and a 
sentence was passed, whereof the contents read thus: 
" Having seen the written complaint of the Fiscal van 
der Hoykens against Arnoldus van Hardenberch in 

* Shrewsburj- Inlet, 



NEW NETIIEKLAXI). 73 

relation to appealing from onr sentence dated tlie 28tli 
April last past, as appears by the signature of tlie be- 
fore-named A. van Hardenberch, from wliicli sentence 
no appeal can be had, as is proven to him by the com- 
mission of their High Mightinesses the Lords States 
General and his Highness of Orange : therefore the 
Director General and Council of New Netherland, re- 
garding the dangerous consequences resulting to the 
supreme authority of this land's magistracy, condemn 
the before-named Arnold van Herdenberch, to pay 
forthwith a fine of 25 guilders, or to be imprisoned 
until the penalty be paid. An example to others." 
Now, if one know the lion from his paw, he can see 
that these people do not regard the name of their High 
Mightinesses, his Highness of Orange, the honor of the 
Magistrates, the words, " dangerous consequences," " an 
example to others," and the like, — having used them 
to play their own parts therewith. We have, there- 
fore, placed this act by the side of that which was com- 
mitted against the minister Doughty. Many more 
similar cases would be found in the minute book, if 
what was unjustly done were always inserted in it, 
which is very doubtful, the contrary sometimes being 
observed. It appears sufliciently, that pretty much 
every thing has been badly managed. And with this 
we will leave the subject and pass on to the govern- 
ment of Director Stuyvesant, with a single word first, 
however, touching the proviso incorporated in the 
ground-briefs, as the consequences may thence be very 
well understood. Absolute grants were made to the 
[people by the ground-briefs, who thought that every 

10 



Y4 REPRESENTATION FROM 

thing was right, and that they were masters of their 
own possessions. The ground-briefs were then de- 
manded from them again upon pretense that there was 
something forgotten in them ; but it amounted to no- 
thing except that they thought they had incommoded 
themselves in giving them, and therefore a proviso was 
added to the ground-brief below, and it was signed 
anew ; which proviso directly conflicts with the ground- 
brief, as there is now in one and the same ground- 
brief a contradiction without semblance of agreement) 
for it reads thus in the old brief; — " and take in pos- 
session the land and the valleys appertaining thereto," 
and the proviso says, "no valley to be used before the 
company," all which could well enough be used, and 
the company have a competency. In the ground- 
briefs is contained also another provision, which is 
usually inserted and sticks in the hosom of everyone ; 
to wit, that they must submit themselves to all taxes 
which the council has made or shall make.* These 
impositions can be continued in iiifinitum., and have 
already been enforced against several inhabitants. 
Others also are discouraged from undertaking any 
thing on such terms. 



* Tlie following clause, t.aken from a ground-brief or patent issued in 1639, is 
the one here alluded to. After describing the land conveyed, it is declared to 
be " upon the express condition and stipulation that the said A. B. and his as- 
signs shall acknowledge the noble Lords Managers aforesaid as their masters and 
patroons under the sovereignty of the High and Mighty Lord States' General, and 
shall be obedient to the director and council here, as all good citizens are bound 
to be, submitting themselves to all such taxes and imposts as have been or may 
be, hereafter, imposed by the noble Lords. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 75 



The Administration of Director Stuyvesant in par- 

tidular. 

We wisli much, we were already tlirougli witL. this 
administration, for it has injured us, and we perceive 
our ability weak ; — nevertheless we will begin, and as 
we have already spoken of the public property, eccle- 
siastical and civil, we will consider how it is in regard 
to the administration of justice, and speak impartially 
between man and man. And first, to point as Avith a 
finger, at the manners of the director and council. As 
regards the director, from his first arrival to this time, 
his manner in court has been to treat with violence, 
dispute with, or advance one of the two parties, not as 
becomes a judge, but as a bounden advocate, which has 
given great discontent to everyone, and with some it 
has gone so far and has efifected so much, that many of 
them dare bring no matter before the court, if they do 
not stand well, or tolerably so, with the director. For 
whoever has him opposed, has as much as the sun and 
moon against him. Having himself appointed many of 
the councilors, and placed them under obligation to 
him, and some of them being for other reasons well 
disposed, he can with them overpower the rest by plu- 
rality of votes. He frequently puts his oi^inion in writ- 
ing, and that so fully that it strikes on every side, and 
then he adds verbally, " Monsieur, this is my advice, if 
anyone has aught to say against it, let him speak." If 
then anybody makes opposition, which is not easily 
done, though he be well grounded, his Honor bursts out 



76 REPRESENTATION FROM 

immediately in such a fury, and makes sucli gestures, 
tliat it is frightful ; yea, lie rails out frequently at the 
councilors, for this thing and the other, with ill words 
which would Letter suit the fish-market than the coun- 
cil chamber ; — and if this be all endured, his Honor will 
not rest yet unless he have his will. To demonstrate 
this by examples and proof, though easily done, would 
nevertheless detain us too long; but we all say and 
affirm that this has been his common jjractice from the 
first, and still daily continues. And this is the condi- 
tion of things in the council, on the part of the director, 
who is its head and president. Let us now briefly 
speak of the councilors individually. The vice director, 
Inibbert van Dincklagen^ has for a long time, on various 
occasions, shown great dissatisfaction about many dif- 
ferent matters, and has protested against the director 
and his appointed councilors, but only lately, and after 
some others of the chief officers had done so. He was, 
before this, so influenced by fear, that he durst venture 
to say nothing against the director, but let many things 
pass by, and submitted to them. He declared after- 
wards that he had great objections to them, because 
they were not just, but he kept silence for the sake of 
peace ; for the director had said in the council, that he 
would treat him worse than Wouter van Twiller had 
ever done, if he were not willing to conform to his 
wishes. This man, then, is over-ruled. Let us proceed 
to the others. Monsieur la Montagne had been in the 
council in Kieft's time, and was then very much sus- 
pected by many. He had no commission from the 
Fatherland, was driven by the war from his farm, is also 



NEW NETHERLAND. 17 

very mucli indebted to the company, and llierefore is 
compelled to dissemble. But it is sufficiently known 
from himself that he is not pleased, and is opposed to 
the administration. Bryan Netoton^ lieutenant of the 
soldiers, is the next. This man is afraid of the director, 
and regards him as his benefactor ; and besides, is very 
simple and inexperienced in law. As he does not 
understand our Dutch language, he is scarcely capable 
of replying to the long written opinions, except that he 
can and will say yes. Sometimes the commissary, Adri- 
an Keyser^ is admitted into the council, who came here 
as secretary. This man has not forgotten much law, 
but says that he lets God^s water run over God''s field. 
He cannot and dares not say any thing, for so much de- 
volves upon him that it is best that he should be silent. 
The captains of the ships, Avhen they are ashore, have a 
vote in the council ; as Jehner Thomassen.^ and Paidus 
Lefiuiertssen^ who was made equipment master upon his 
first arrival, and who has always had a seat in the coun- 
cil, and is a free man. "What knowledge those people, 
who all their lives sail on the sea, and are brought up 
to ship-work, have of law matters, and of the disputes 
of landsmen, anyone can easily imagine. Besides, the 
director keeps them so in debt that they dare not speak 
in opposition to him, as will appear from this passage 
at Cura9oa, before the director ever saw New Nether- 
land. As they were discoursing about the price of 
carracks (cmtó*), the director said to the minister 



* The meaning of this word is uncertain. Crackys is an old Scotch term, 
signifying cannon. See Jamieson's Ety. Diet, of the Scotch language. Krai; or 
Kraak, in the Dxitch, answers to carrack, a galleon or large ship. 



78 REPRESENTATION FROM 

and others, " Dominie Johannes,* I tlionglit that I had 
brought honest ship-masters with me, but I find that I 
have brought a set of thieves ;" and this was said of 
these councilors, and especially of the equipment-mas- 
ter, for Captain Jelmer was most all the time at sea. 
They have let it pass unnoticed, — a proof that they 
were indebted. But they have not fared badly ; for 
though Paulus Lenaertssen has small wages, he has 
built a better dwelling-house here than anybody else. 
How this has happened is mysterious to us ; for if the 
director has knowledge of these matters, he is never- 
theless as quiet when Paulus Lenaertssen rises, as he is 
inattentive to anybody else, which causes suspicion in 
the minds of many. There remains, to complete this 
court-bench, the secretary and the fiscal, Hendrick van 
Dyck^ who had previously been an ensign-bearer. Di- 
rector Stuy vesant has kept him twenty-nine months out 
of the meetings of the council, for the reason, among 
others which his Honor assigned, that he cannot keep 
secret, but makes public, what is there resolved. He 
also frequently declared that he was a villain, a scoun- 
drel, a thief, and the like. All this is well known to 
the fiscal, who dares not against him take the right 
course, and, in our judgment, it is not advisable for him 
to do so ; for the director is utterly insufferable in word 
and deed. What shall we say of a man whose head is 
troubled, and has a screio loose^ and who is powerful 
at home; especially as it often happens that it is 
hushed up, if tliere he any sap in the toood to close it up ? 

* Rev. Joliaunes Backems. 



NEW NETHERLAND. T9 

The secretary, Cornelius Van Tienhoven^ comes uext. 
Of this man very much could be said, and more than 
we are able, but we will select here and there a little 
for the sake of brevity. He is cautious, subtle, intel- 
ligent, and sharp-witted, — good gifts when they are 
well used. He is one of those who have been longest 
in the country, and every circumstance is well known 
to him, in regard both to the Christians and the In- 
dians. With the Indians, moreover, he roams about 
the same as an Indian, with a little covering and a small 
patch in front, from lust after the prostitutes, to whom 
he has always been mightily inclined, and with whom 
he has had so much to do that no punishment or threats 
of the director can drive him from them. He is ex- 
tremely expert in dissimulation. He appears to all to 
be asleep, but it is in order to bite, and shows exter- 
nally the most friendship towards those whom he most 
hates. He gives everyone who has any business 
with him, — which scarcely no one can avoid, — good 
answers and promises of assistance, yet rarely helps 
anybody ; but twists continually and shuffles from one 
side to the other. Except to his friends, — the priests, 
— ^he is in his words and conduct loose, false, deceitful, 
and given to lying, promising everyone, and when it 
comes to perform, never at home. The origin of the 
war was ascribed principally to him, together Avith 
some of his friends. In consequence of his false reports 
and lies the director was led into it, as is believed and 
declared both by the honest Indians and Christians. 
Now, if the voice of the people,^according to the 
maxim, — be the voice of God, one can with truth say 



80 EEPRESENTATION FROM 

scarcely any tiling good of this man, or omit any thing 
bad. The whole country, save the director and his 
party, cries out against him bitterly, as a villain, mur- 
derer, and traitor, Avho must leave the country, or there 
will be no peace with the Indians. Director Stuyve- 
sant was, at first and afterwards, well admonished of 
this ; but he has nevertheless kept him in office, and 
submitted to him so much, that all things go according 
to his wishes, more than if he were President. Yea, 
he also says that he is well contented to have him in 
office, hut that stone does not yet rest!'' "We firmly be- 
lieve that he misleads him in many things, so that he 
does many bad things which he otherwise would not 
do ; in a word, that he is one great cause of his ruin 
and the land's disquiet. But it seems that the director 
can or will see nothing of it ; for Avhen it Avas repre- 
sented to him by some persons, he gave it no consider- 
ation. It has Ijeen contrived to disguise and manage 
matters so, that in the Fatherland, where the truth can 
be freely spoken, nobody would be able to molest him. 
Nothing has been done there to get at the truth. Hav- 
ing established the powers of the council, it is easy to 
understand that the law-people clung by each other, in 
order to maintain the imaginary sovereignty and to 
give color to that pretension. Nine men were chosen 
to represent the whole commonalty, and commissions 
and instructions were given, that whatever these men 
should do, should be the act of the whole commonalty. 



* By this figm-atiye expression is probably meant that efforts would be made 
in the Fatherland to hare Van TienhoTen removed. 



NEW NETHERLAND. 81 

And SO, in fact, it was, as long as it corresponded Avltli 
the wishes and views of the director. In such cases, 
they represented the whole commonalty ; but when it 
did not so correspond, they were then clowns, usurers, 
rebels, and the like. But to understand this properly, 
it will be best briefly to state all things chronologically, 
as they have happened during his administration, and 
in what manner those who have sought the good of the 
country have been treated with injustice. 

His first arrival — for what passed on the voyage is 
not for us to speak of — was like a peacock, with great 
state and pomp. The declaration of his Honor, that 
he wished to stay here only three years, with other 
haughty expressions, caused some to think that he 
would not be a father. The appellation of Lord Gen- 
eral^ and similar titles, were never before known here. 
Almost every day he caused proclamations of various 
import to be published, which were for the most part 
never observed, and have long since been a dead letter, 
except the wine excise, as that yielded a profit. The 
proceedings of the Eight Men, and those especially 
against Jochem Pietersz Cuyter and Cornells Melyn, 
happened in the beginning of his administration. The 
director showed himself so one-sided in them, that he 
gave reason to many to judge of his character little to 
his advantage. Every one clearly saw that Director 
Kieft had more favor, aid, and counsel in his suite, than 
his adversary, and that the one director was the ad- 
vocate of the other, as the language of Director Stuy- 
vesant imported and signified, when he said, " These 
brutes may hereafter endeavor to knock me down also, 

11 



82 REPRESENTATION FROM 

but I will manage it so now, that they will have theii' 
bellies full for the future." How it was managed, the 
result of the lawsuit can bear witness. They were 
compelled to pay fines, and were cruelly banished. In 
order that nothing should be wanting, Cornells Melyn 
was threatened if he asked for mercy, that it would, 
after a while, be seen how his matters would turn out 
in the Fatherland, in language like this, as Melyn, who 
is still li^'ing, himself declares, " If I knew, Melyn, that 
you would divulge our sentence, or bring it before their 
High Mightinesses, I would cause you to be hung im- 
mediately on the highest tree in New Netherland." 
Now this took place in private, and may be denied, — 
and- nothing ought to be taken as true but what is 
credible, — but this is so confirmed by similar cases, 
that it cannot be doubted. At one time, after leaving 
the house of the minister, Avhere the consistory had 
been sitting and had risen, it happened that Arnoldus 
van Herdenbergh related the proceedings relative to 
the estate of Zeger Teunisz, and how he himself, as 
curator, had appealed from the sentence; whereupon 
the director, who had been sitting there with them as 
an elder, interrupted him, and replied, "It may, during 
my administration, be contemplated to appeal, but if 
any one should do it, I will make Mm a foot sliorter^ 
and send the pieces to Holland, and let him appeal in 
that way." Oh cruel words ! what more could even a 
sovereign do ? And yet this is all firmly established ; 
for after Jochem Pieterz Cuyter and Cornells Melyn 
went to the Fatherland to prosecute their appeal, and 
letters came back here from them, and the report was 



NEW NETIIERLAND. 83 

that they were upheld in the appeal, or would be so 
upheld, the director declared openly, at various times, 
and on many occasions, as well before inhabitants as 
strangers, when speaking of Jochem Pietersz Cuyter 
and Cornelis Melyn, " If they come back and bring 
the order of the States, they would be as they were, 
unless their High Mightinesses summon me, in which 
case I will immediately send them back." His Honor 
has also always denied that any appeal was or could be 
taken in this country, and declared that he was able to 
show this conclusively. And as some were not willing 
to believe it, especially in matters against the company 
or their officers, a great deal was quoted and extracted 
from different authorities, but not much to the purpose. 
At the first, while Director Kieft was still here, the 
English minister,* as he had been long badly treated 
and his land was confiscated, prayed that he might be 
permitted to return to the Islands,f or to Netherland ; 
but an unfavorable answer was alw^ays given him, and 
he was threatened with this and that ; finally it resulted 
in permission to return, provided he gave a promise, 
under his hand, that he would not, in any place in 
which he should come, speak or complain of what had 
befallen him here in New Netherland from Director 
Kieft or Stuyvesant. This the man himself declares. 
Mr. Dincklagen and Commander Loper, who then had 
seats in the council, also say that this is true. It is a 
marvel how the directors can now justify to their own 
consciences what they wished to do with such certificates, 

* Francis Doxighty. f The West Indies. 



84 REPRESENTATION FROM 

and others like them, which were secretly obtained. 
The honorable director began also at the first to argue 
very stoutly against the contraband trade, as was indeed 
very laudable. The law was passed and remained in 
force, yet this trade, forbidden to others, he himself 
wished to carry on ; but to this the people were not 
willing to consent. His Honor said, and openly asserted, 
that he was allowed, on behalf of the company, to sell 
powder, lead, and guns to the Indians, but no one else 
could do so, and that he wished to carry their resolution 
into execution. What the resolution of the company 
amounts to, is unknown to us,* but what relates to the 
act is notorious to every inhabitant ; as the director has 
by his servants openly carried on the trade with the 
Indians, and has taken guns from free men who had 
brought with them one or two for their own use and 
amusement, paying for them according to his own pleas- 
ure, and selling them to the Indians. But this way of 
proceeding could amount to nothing, and made little 
progress. It was necessary to do something more, and 
therefore a merchant, Gerrit Vastrick, received orders 
to bring with him one case of guns, which is known of, 
for the purpose, as it was said, of supplying the Indians 



* The company had written to Stuyvesant on the ^th of April, 1648, as fol- 
lows: — "It is our opinion that the natives within our conquests should be gov- 
erned with lenity — a conclusion foi-med from our wars with them, which we 
believe are the cause of their anxiety to provide themselves with powder and 
ball for use in hunting, which we consider nothing but an artful pretext. Yet, 
as they urge it with such earnestness, that they would rather renew the war with 
us than be without these articles, and as a war with them, in our present situa- 
tion would be very unwelcome, we think the best policy is to furnish them with 
powder and baB, but with a sparing hand." (Albany Records, Vol. tV. p. 1, 2.) 



NEW NETHERLAND. 85 

sparingly. They set about with this case of guns so 
openly, that there was not a man on the Manathans but 
knew it ; and it was work enough to quiet the people. 
Everybody made his own comment ; and, as it was ob- 
served that the ship was not inspected as others had 
been before, it was presumed that there were many 
more guns, besides powder and lead, in it for the gov- 
ernor; but as the first did not succeed, silence was, 
therefore, observed in regard to the rest ; and it might 
have passed unnoticed, had not everyone perceived that 
it opened a great door for abuse. The director so 
treating all others, then gave permission to a captain 
and merchant, who were celebrated for this of old, and 
who were now said to have brought with them a great 
number of guns, which was the more believed, because 
they went to the right place, and on their return {Re- 
toere'^'') were dumb as to what they did. This begat 
so much discontent among the common people, and 
even among the other officers, that it is not to be ex- 
pressed; and had the people not been persuaded to 
hold back, something extraordinary would have hap- 
pened. It was further declared, that the director is 
every thing, and does the business of the whole coun- 
try, having several shops himself; that he is a brewer 
and has breweries, is a part owner of ships, a merchant 
and a trader, as well in lawful as contraband articles. 
But he does not mind what is said ; he exhibits the 



* This is not a Dutch word. It may be the French, retour, in which sense we 
have used it. Its presence renders the sense doubtful, and perhaps the translation 
of the passage is incorrect. 



86 REPRESENTATION FROM 

orders of tlie managers that he might do so, and says, 
moreover, that he should receive a supply of powder 
and lead by the Falconer for the purpose. In a word, 
the same person who interdicts the trade to others upon 
pain of death, carries it on both secretly and openly, 
contrary to good morals. His example is not to be 
followed, and if others do follow it, — which, indeed, 
often happens secretly, — then away with them to the 
gallows. This we have seen in the case of Jacob 
Reyntgen and Jacob van Schermerhoren, who, for this 
offense, were sentenced to die, and who were with 
much difficulty relieved from the sentence, and then 
they were banished as felons, and their goods confis- 
cated. The banishment was, by the intervention of 
many good men, afterwards remitted, but their goods, 
many of which were free (as they were trading mer- 
chants), remained confiscated. We cannot pass by re- 
lating here what happened to one Joost Theunisz Bac- 
ker, who complained to us of being greatly maltreated, 
as he in fact was. For the man being a reputable 
burgher, of good life and moderate means, was put in 
prison upon the declaration of an officer of the compa- 
ny, who, according to the general and council, had 
himself thrice well deserved the gallows, and for whom 
a new one even had been made, from which, out of 
mercy, he escaped. He was persecuted in every way, 
and finally, when nothing could be established against 
him having the semblance of crime, he was released 
again, after thirteen days confinement, upon satisfacto- 
ry bail for his appearance, in case the fiscal should find 
any thing against him. Nothing has as yet been done 



NEW NETHERLAND. 87 

about it though the year and a day have passed by. 
We have, as advocates for this commoner, and upon 
his request respectfully solicited, as his bonds are 
heavy, that the suit should be tried, so that he might 
be punished according to his deserts if he were guilty, 
and if not, that he might be discharged. But there 
was nothing gained by our interposition, as we were 
answered with rej)roachful language, and the fiscal was 
permitted to rattle out any thing that came in his 
mouth, and the man was rendered odious beyond all 
precedent, and abused before all as a foul monster. 
Asked he any thing, even if it were all right, he re- 
ceived abusive language, his request was not complied 
with, and justice was denied him. These things pro- 
duced great dissatisfaction, and led some to meditate 
leaving the country. It happened better with one 
Pieter Vander Linden, as he was not imprisoned. 
There are many others, but the most of them are afraid, 
yet would speak if they durst. Now the company it- 
self carries on the forbidden trade, and the people 
think that as it can do so without criminality there is 
no harm in their doing it ; and this causes smuggling 
and frauds to an incredible extent, though not so great 
this year as heretofore. The publishing of a placard 
that those who were involved, whether civilly or crim- 
inally, in New England, might have passport and pro- 
tection here, has very much embittered the minds of 
the English, and has been considered by everyone 
fraught with bad consequences. Great distrust has 
also been created among the inhabitants on account of 
Heer Stuyvesant being so ready to confiscate. There 



88 REPRESENTATION FROM 

scarcely comes a ship in or near here, which, if it do 
not belong to friends, is not regarded as a prize by 
him. There will be great pretenses (though little 
comes of them) made concerning these matters, about 
which we will not dispute ; but confiscating has reached 
such a pitch in New Netherland, that nobody who has 
any visible property considers it to be at all safe. It 
were well if the knowledge of this thing were confined 
to this countiy ; but he has spread it himself among 
the neighboring English — North and South — and in 
the West Indies and Caribbee Islands. Everywhere 
there, such is the bad report, that not a ship dare come 
from those places ; and good credible people who come 
from thence, by the way of Boston, and others of Bos- 
ton trading here, assure us that more than twenty-five 
shi^js would come here from those islands every year if 
the owners were not fearful of confiscation. And this 
is the result only in these places. The same report 
flies to 'all others, and produces like fear in them, so 
that this vulture is destroying the prosperity of New 
Netherland, diverting its trade, and making the people 
discontented. Other jjlaces not so well situated as this, 
have more shipping. All the substantial inhabitants, 
the merchant, the bui'gher and peasant, the planter, the 
laboring man, and also the man of service, suffer great 
injury in consequence ; for if the shipping were abun- 
dant, every thing could be better sold, and necessaries 
be more easily obtained than they are now, whether 
they be such as the people themselves, by God's bless- 
ing, get out of the earth, or those they otherwise pro- 
cure, and be sold with more profit; and freedom in 



NEW NETHEKLAND. 89 

trade would be given to the people. New England is 
a clear example tliat this policy succeeds well, and so 
especially is Virginia. All the debts and claims which 
were left uncollected by Director Kieft, — due for the 
most part from poor and indigent people who had noth- 
ing, and Avhose property was destroyed by the war, 
by which they were compelled to abandon their houses, 
lands, cattle, and other means, — were now demanded ; 
and when the people declared that they were not able 
to pay — that they had lost their property by the war, 
and desired my Lord to have patience, they were re- 
pulsed. A resolution was adopted and put in execu- 
tion, requiring those who did not satisfy the company's 
debts, to pay interest ; but the debts in question were 
made in and by the war, and the people are not able 
to pay either principal or interest. Again, the just 
debts which Director Kieft left behind, due from the 
company, whether they consisted of monthly wages, or 
were for grain delivered, or were otherwise lawfully 
contracted, these the director will not pay. If we op- 
pose this as an unusual course, it is admitted and he 
wishes to have it so. We have, by petition and proper 
remonstrance, effected, however, so much, that the col- 
lection of the debts is put off for a time. 

Besides this, the country of the company is so 
taxed, and is burdened and kept down in such a man- 
ner, that the inhabitants are not able to appear beside 
their neighbors of Virginia or New England, or to un- 
dertake any enterprise. It seems, — and thus much is 
known by us, — that all the inhabitants of New Neth- 
erland admit that the managers have scarce any care 

12 



90 EEPRESENTxVTION ERUM 

or regard for New Netherlaud, except wlieu there is 
something to receive ; for whicli reason, however, they 
receive less. The great extremity of war into which 
we have been thrown, clearly demonstrates that the 
managers care not whether New Netherland sink or 
swim ; for when in that emergency, aid and assistance 
were sought from them, — which they, indeed, were 
bound by honor, and by promises half unsolicited, to 
grant, j)ursuant to the exemptions, — they made no at- 
tempt to furnish them at their own expense. We let 
the expense go ; they have never established any good 
order or regulation concerning it, although the pleni- 
tude of their High Mightinesses had decreed and com- 
manded it. Neither have they ever allowed the true 
causes and reasons of the war to be investigated, nor 
have they attempted to punish those who had rashly 
begun it. Hence no little suspicion attaches to their 
order concerning it ; at least, it is certain that their 
officers were chosen more from favor and friendship 
than merit, which did not make their matters go on 
better. But this is the loss and damage, for the most 
part, of the stockholders. Many of the others, doubt- 
less, knew well the object. In a word, they come far 
short in aflbrdiug that protection which they owe the 
country, though the burdens are nothing lighter on that 
account. They understand how to impose taxes, for 
while they promised, in the exemptions, not to go above 
five per cent., they now take sixteen. It is obvious 
that there is a great difference, — a half-difference, but 
there is no relief. The evasions and objections which 
are used by them, as regards merchants' goods, smug- 



NEW NETHERLANP. 91 

gling, and many otter tilings, and whicli tlie times 
have taught them, iu order to give color to their acts, 
are of no force or consideration. They, however, ai'e 
not now to be refuted, as it would take too long; 
though we stand ready to do so, if there be any neces- 
sity for it. These and innumerable other difficulties, 
which we have not time to express, exist, tending to 
the damage, injury, and ruin of the country. If the 
inhabitants, or we ourselves, go to the director or other 
officers of the company, and speak of the flourishing 
condition of our neighbors, and complain of our own 
desolate and ruinous state, we get for answer from 
them, that they see and observe it, but cannot remedy 
it, as they follow the company's orders, which they are 
compelled to do, and that if we have any thing to say, 
we must petition their masters, the managers, or their ■ 
High Mightinesses, which, in truth, we have judged to 
be necessary. It is now more than a year since the 
commonalty deemed it expedient, and proposed, to send 
a deputation to their High Mightinesses. The director 
commended the project, and not only assented to it, 
but urged it strongly. It was put tvell in the mill^ so 
that we had already spoken of a person to go, when it 
fell through, for these reasons : When it was proposed, 
the director desired that it should be communicated 
according to his wishes; which some who j)erceived 
the object, would not consent to, and the matter there- 
fore fell asleep. Besides, the English, who had been 
depended upon and who were associated in the affiiir, 
withdrew from time to time from us. This made the 
necessity of action the greater, and the Nine Men were, 



92 REPRESENTATION FROM 

therefore, changed tlie next year, wlien Heer Stuyve- 
sant again urged the matter strongly, and declared that 
he had already written to the company that such per- 
sons would come. After the election of the Nine Men, 
and before the new incumbents were sworn in, it was 
determined by them and resolved verbally, that they 
would proceed with the deputation, whatever should 
be the consequences ; but it remained some time before 
the oath was renewed, on account of some amplification 
of the commission being necessary, which was finally 
given and the protocol arranged and signed ; but we 
have never been able to obtain an authentic copy of it, 
although the director has frequently promised, and we 
have frequently applied for it. 

As the company had now been waited upon a long 
.while in vain, promising amendment from time to time, 
but going on worse, a determined resolution was taken 
by the commons-men to send some person. They made 
their intention known to the director, and requested 
that they might confer with the commonalty; but 
their proposition was not well received, and they ob- 
tained in reply to their written petition, a very long 
letter, to the effect, that communication must be made 
through the director, and his instructions followed, with 
many other things which did not agree with our object, 
and were impracticable, as we think, for various reasons 
which we have set down in writing. We thought it 
was not advisable to communicate through him, but we 
represented to his Honor that, should he let us go, we 
would not send any thing to the Fatherland, without 
his having a copy of it. He could then answer for 



NEW NETHERLAND. • 93 

liiinself, as we would be glad lie should ; but to follow 
Ms directions in tMs matter was not, we thought, 
founded in reason, but was antagonistic to the welfare 
of the country. We had never promised or agreed to 
do so, but were bound by an oath to seek the pros- 
perity of the country ; as, according to our best knowl- 
edge, we are always inclined to do. 

In the above-mentioned letter it says, if we read 
rightly, that we should inquire what approbation the 
commonalty were willing to give to this business, and 
how the expense should be defrayed ; but the director 
explained it differently from what we understood it. 
Now as he was not willing to convene the people for 
our purpose, or that we should do it, we went round 
from house to house and spoke to the commonalty. 
The general has, from that time, burned with rage, and, 
if we can judge, has not been effectually appeased 
since, although we did not know what else to do, and 
followed his order herein. Nevertheless, it was con- 
templated that the Nine Men should not communicate 
with him or follow his directions in any thing pertain- 
ing to the matter. This excited in him a bitter and 
unconquerable hatred against them all, but principally 
against those whom he supposed to be the chief authors 
of it ; and although these persons had been good and 
dear friends with him always, and he, shortly before, had 
regarded them as the most honorable, respectable, in- 
telligent and patriotic men of the country, yet, as soon 
as they did not follow the general's wishes, they were 
this and that, some of them rascals, liars, rebels, usur- 
ers and spendthrifts, in a word, hanging was almost too 



94 • REPRESENTATION FROM 

good for t]iem. It had been previously strongly urged 
that the deputation should be expedited ; but [he said] 
there was then still six months' time, and all that was 
proper and necessary could be put upon a sheet of 
paper. Many reports also were spread among the peo- 
ple, and it was sought, principally by means of the 
English, to prevent the college of the Nine Men from 
doing any thing; but as these intrigues were dis- 
covered, and it was, therefore, manifest that this could 
not be effected, so in order to make a diversion, many 
suits were brought against those who were considered 
the ringleaders. They were accused and then prose- 
cuted by the fiscal and other suborned officers, who 
made them out to be the greatest villains in the coun- 
try, where shortly before they had been known as the 
best people and dearest children. At this time an op- 
portunity presented itself, which the director was as 
glad to have, as he himself said, as his own life. At 
the beginning of the year 1649, clearly perceiving that 
we would not only have much to do about the deputa- 
tion but would hardly be able to accomplish it, we 
deemed it necessary to make regular memoranda for 
the purpose of furnishing a journal from them at the 
proper time. This duty was committed to one Adriaen 
vander Donck, who by a resolution adopted at the same 
time, was lodged in a chamber at the house of one 
Michael Jansz. The general, on a certain occasion 
when Vander Donck was out of the chamber, seized 
this rough draft with his own hands, put Vander 
Donck the day after in jail, called together the great 
council, accused him of having committed a-iinm, Icesce 



NEW NETIIEULAND. 95 

ina^estatis^ and took up the matter so warmly, that 
there was scarcely any determining whether the depu- 
tation was to proceed (and it was yet to be arranged), 
or whether the journal — as Mine Heer styled the 
rough draft from which the journal was to be pre- 
pared — was of itself action enough ; for Mine Heer 
said there were great calumnies in it against their High 
Mightinesses, and when we wished to explain it, and 
sought to correct the errors (as the writer did not wish 
to insist upon it, and said he knew well that there 
were mistakes in it, arising from haste, and other simi- 
lar causes, in consequence of his having had much to 
do and not having read over again the most of it), our 
request was called a libel which was worthy of no an- 
swer, and the writer of which it was intended to pun- 
ish as an example to others. In fine, we could not 
make it right in any way. He forbid Vander Donck 
the council, and also our meetings, and gave us formal 
notice to that effect, and yet would not release him 
from his oath. For the purpose of cutting off' the con- 
venient mode of proof, he issued a proclamation de- 
claring that no testimony or other act should be valid 
unless it were written by the secretary ; which was of 
service to nobody, but, on the contrary, everyone 
complained that nothing could be done. Director 
Kieft had done the same thing when he was apprehen- 
sive that an Attestation would be executed against him. 
And so it is their practice, generally, to do every thing 
they can think of in order to uphold their conduct. 
Those whose offices required them to concern them- 
selves with the affairs of the country, and did so, did 



96 IIEPREÖENTATION FROM 

■well, if they went according to the general's will and 
pleasure ; if they did not, they were prosecuted and 
thrown into prison, guarded by soldiers so they could 
not speak with anybody, angrily abused before every- 
one as monsters, threatened to be taught this and that, 
and every thing done against them that he could con- 
trive or invent. We cannot enter into details, but re- 
fer to the record kept of these things, and the docu- 
ments which the director himself will furnish. From 
the foregoing relation their High Mightinesses, and 
other friends who may see it, can well imagine what 
labor and burdens we have had upon our shoulders 
from which we would very willingly have escaped, but 
for love of the country and of truth, which, as far as 
we know, has long lain buried. The trouble and diffi- 
culty which do or will affect us, although wanting no 
addition, do not grieve us so much as the sorrowful 
condition of New Netherland, now lying at its last 
gasp ; but we hope and trust that our afflictions and 
the sufferings of the inhabitants and people of the 
country, will awaken in their High Mightinesses a 
compassion which will be a cause of rejoicing to New 
Netherland.* * 

In tohat manner New Netherland should he redressed. 

Although we are well assured and know, in regard 
to the mode of redress of the country, we are only 
children, and their High Mightinesses are entirely 

* See Ifote E, post. 



NEW NETHERLAXD. 97 

competent, we nevertlieless pray that tliey overlook 
our presumption, and pardon us if we make some sug- 
gestions according to our liumble understanding there- 
of, in addition to what we have considered necessary 
in our petition to their High Mightinesses. 

In our o]Dinion this country will never flourish un- 
der the government of the Honorable Company, but 
will pass away and come to an end of itself, unless the 
Honorable Company be reformed ; and, therefore, it 
would be more profitable for them, and better for the 
country, that they should be rid thereof, and their 
effects transported hence. 

To speak specifically. Care ought to be taken of 
the public property, as well ecclesiastical as civil, 
which, in beginnings, can be illy dispensed with. It is 
doubtful whether divine worship will not have to cease 
altogether, in consequence of the departure of the min- 
ister, and the inability of the company. There should 
be a public school, provided with at least two good 
masters, so that first of all in so wild a countrv, where 
there are many loose people, the youth be well taught 
and brought up, not only in reading and writing, but 
also in the knowledge and fear of the Lord. As it is 
now, the school is kept very irregularly, one and an- 
other keeping it according to his pleasure and as long 
as he thinks proper. There ought also to be an alms 
house, and an orphan asylum, and other similar insti- 
tutions. The minister who now goes home,* can give 



* This Avas the Eev. Johannes Backerus, who had pverioxisly been a minister 
at Curaeoa. He succeeded the Rev, Everadus Bogardus as miiiistev at New 
13 



98 REPRESENTATION FROM 

a mucli fuller explanation thereof. The country must 
also he provided with godly, honorable, and intelligent 
rulers, who are not very indigent, or, indeed, are not 
too covetous. A covetous governor makes poor sub- 
jects. The manner the country is now governed falls 
severely upon it, and is intolerable, for nobody is un- 
molested or secure in his property longer than the 
director pleases, who is generally strongly inclined to 
confiscating ; and if every thing be well done, and the 
property given to the Heer, one must still study always 
to please him if he would have quiet. A good popula- 
tion would be the consequence of a good government, as 
we have shown according to our ability in our petition ; 
and although to give free passage and equip ships, if it 
be necessary, would be expensive at first, — yet, if the 
result be considered, it would ultimately be a wise 
measure, if by that means farmers and laborers, togeth- 
er with other poor people, were brought into the coun- 
try, with the little property which they have ; of whom 
the Fatherland has enough to spare. We believe it 
would then prosper, especially as good privileges and 
exemptions, which we regard as the mother of popula- 
tion, would encourage the inhabitants to carry on com- 
merce and lawful trade. Everyone would be allured 
hither by the pleasantness, situation, salubrity, and 
fruitfulness of the country, if protection were secured 
within the already established boundaries. It would 
all, with God's assistance, then, according to human 



Amsterdam in 1647, and left for Holland in 1649, just before the departure of 
this deputation. 



IfEW NETHERLAND. 99 

judgment, go well, and New Netherland would iu a 
few years be a brave place and be able to do service 
to tte Netherlaud nation, to repay richly tlie cost and 
to tbank its benefactors. 

High Mighty Lords ! We have had the boldness 
to write this remonstrance, and to place matters before 
you as we have done from love of the truth, and be- 
cause we felt ourselves obliged to do so by our oath 
and conscience. It is well that we have not seen, 
heard, and considered them all at once, but separately, 
in their whole tenor and in every particular. Never- 
theless, there is nothing in it but what is well known 
by some of us to be true ; — the most is known by all 
of lis to be true. We hope their High Mightnesses 
will pardon our presumption and our plainness of 
style, composition, and method. In conclusion, we 
commit their High Mightinesses, tJaeir persons, delibe- 
rations, and measures at home and abroad, together 
with all the friends of New Netherland, to the merci- 
ful guidance and protection of the Highest, whom we 
supplicate for their High Mightinesses' present and 
eternal welfare. Amen. 

Actum defen. — 28th of July, in New Netherland. 
And was subscribed, — '■'■ Adriaen 'vander Donc\ Au- 
giistijn Hermansz^ Arnoldus van Hardenhergh^ Jacob 
van Oouioenlioven, Oloff Stevensz^^'' (by whose name 
was written, "under protest, — obliged to sign about 
the government of the Heer Kieft,") " Micliiel Jansz^ 
Thomas Hall, Elbert Mbertsz, Gover t LoTcermans, 
Hendrich HendricTcsz Kip, and Jan JEverts-boutP Be- 
low was written, ^^ According to tlie collation of the 



100 REPKESENTATION FROM NEW KETHERLAND. 

original remonstrance^ dated and subscribed as above^ 
with loMch these are found to correspond^ at the Hague^ 
the l?jth October, 1649, iij we;"— and was subscrilDed, 
"D. V. SCPIELLUYNEN, 

Notary PitblicT 



Note A . soo pngL' yj. 



niE ÏITLK OK THE EAlll. Of STIRLIXG Ï0 J.ONG ISLAND AND Tllli ADJACENT ISLAND;?. 

Andüew Fokester, tlie agent ul' the dowager of Stirling, was a Scotchman 
from DiiuJee. He was arrested and examined before the director and coimeil, 
on tlie 28th September, 16i1, wlien tlie facts appeared as set forth in the text. 
The other Scotchman arrested in 1G40 by Kieft, was James Farrett, who held a 
power of attorney from the Earl of Stirling in his life time, dated the 20th of 
April, 10.37, authorizing him to dispose of Long Island and the adjacent islands 
between the degrees of forty and forty-one north latitude, or any part of them. 
A certified copy of tliis instrument is on file in the office of the to-\vn clerk of 
Southampton, on Long Island. Savage, in Winthrop (Vol. ii. p. 6), misled by 
Wood (who, however, corrects the error in the second edition of his " Sketch of 
Long Island"), confounds Forester with Farrett, 

The histoiy of the grant of Long Island to the Earl of Stirling, has been 
much obscured. It is not, as intimated by Hubbard, included in cither of his 
patents for Xova Scotia ; nor was it a grant direct from the crown, as stated by 
other writers. Those of Xova Scotia and the Canada grant, were issued bj- the 
crown, that of Long Island came from the Plj-raouth Company ; though in truth 
they may all be considered as emanating from that company, througli royal 
interference. 

The adventurers of the Northern Coloiu- of Yii-ginia obtained fi'om .James 1. 
a separate patent in 1620, for all that portion of the country within their limits, 
tluit is, between the degrees of 40 and 48, and formed a new company under the 
name of " The Council established at Pl\-mouth, in the county of Devon, for the 
planting, ruling, and governing of New England in America." The Earl of Stir- 
ling, then Sir 'William Alexander, and Master of Requests to the king for Scot- 
land, becoming acquainted with Capt. John Mason, who had been in the eoimtry, 
was in consequence induced to apply to the king for a i>atent for iJ"ova Scotia, 
which was granted him iu 1621 ; but as this territory was within the limits of 
the grant to the council of New England, the prior assent of that corporation 
was necessary, and, upon the request q{ the king, was given (Goi-ges' Brief 
Narration, chap. 24). Sir William Alexander was a favorite of James I., prob- 
ably on account of his being a fellow-eotrntrj-man of courtly manners and 
poetical talents. The interposition of the king in his behalf, and the extraordi- 
nary privileges included in the grant, of creating titles of nobility for New 
Scotland, which ■were in fact conferred, show the extent of his influence with 



102 REPRESENTATION FROM 

that monai'cli, — an influence wliicli, on the death of James, ha retained with his 
successor. 

The patentees of New England surrendered their charter in 1635, first pass- 
ing grants to tliemselves in severalty, of such parts of the country " along the 
sea coast," as they deemed proper. They had, however, previously conveyed to 
private persons different portions of the country, and in April of that year made 
a deed to the Earl of Stirling, of Long Island and the adjacent islands. This 
deed has never been produced in pnblie, though it is said to be in the State Paper 
Office in London. It is, however, described both in the jietition of Henry, the 
third Earl of Stirling, made in 1601, to Charles II., prayiiig that ill any treaty 
made with the Dutch, the sulijeets of the latter government on Long Island miglit 
be required to submit to the English (London Documents at Albany, Vol. I.), and 
in the power of attorney of the first Earl of Stirling to Farrett, before referred 
to. In the latter document it is recited that the Earl of Stii-ling had, " by and 
with the consent, direction, appointment, and command of his most sacred Majesty, 
the King, obtained a patent or grant /?'o»i the corporation of New England, under 
their common seal, bearing date the two-and-twentieth day of April, in the elev- 
enth year of his said Majesty, Charles, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, 
King, or anno Domini 1636,* of a certain island called Long Island, with all 
and every the islands thereunto adjacent, Ij'ing, and being situate, or bounded 
between the degrees of forty and forty-one of the northerly latitude, or there- 
abouts." It is added in the petition of Henry, the grandson, — " with power of 
judicature, saving to tluit council the Oyer and Terminer of Appeals, to be held 
of that council jicr gladhim comitutiis, and yielding the fifth part of all ore of gold 
and silver." The existence of this grant is established beyond all question by 
the fact that it was, with its relinquishment to the Dulce of York, recognized in 
the patent of Governor NiehoU to Constant and Nathaniel Sylvester for Shelter 
Island, May 31, 1666. (Wood's Lone/ Island, p. 6, note.) The release to the Duke 
of Tork is also mentioned, though upon what authority it is not stated, in 3lass. 
Hist. Coll vol. III. 2d Series, p. 85. Major General William Alexander of our 
Revolution, generally known as Lord Stirling, in a letter to one of his agents at 
the time of his claiming the earldom and American estates of Stirling, says, that 
Henry, the third earl, conveyed this title, about the year 1662, to the Duke 
of York, for an anmiity of three hundi'ed pounds, which was never paid. (See 
his Life, by Mr. Duer, p. 37.) As the Duke of York's patent included Long Island, 
this release perfected the title of the crown of England to it in him, subject of 
course to the prior grants made by the Earl of Stirling, which are the founda- 
tion of many of the titles to real estate now held on the east end of Long Island, 
on Shelter Island, and Nantucket. • 



* Tbis is obviously a clerical error. The eleventli year of Charles I. was 1085, and as it was in 
June of that year tliat the patent was surrendered by the Conncil of Hew England, tliejr deed to 
the Earl of Stirling mast have been before that event. 



I^^EW NETHERLAND. 103 



N O T E B . See page 38. 



THE CLAIM OF ED5[l'.VD PLOWDEX TO LOXG ISLAND AXD XEW JERSEY. 

The elaim of Edmund Plowden to Long Island and the countiy soutli of it, 
to Cape May, forms a. eurious chapter in our earl}- liistory. Most wi-iters have 
been disposed to treat it as a valid one; while otliers liave gone into the oppo- 
site extreme, and both ridiculed the claim and utterly denied its existence, giving 
it no otlier consideration than as an Eutopian fabrication. The truth appears to 
be that one Edmund Plowdcn did obtain a grant, tlirough tlie deputy general 
of Ireland, pni-porting to be from the king, which was em-olled in Ireland, and 
with which he visited this country. On his return to England, he caused a 
pampUet to be published with the title of " A Description of tlie Province of 
New Albion," &c.,* containing a letter alleged to have been written by one 
Robert Evelyn, who had lived there many years. "Were there no other evidence 
to prove the actual assertion of Plowden's claim than this brochure, both might 
justly be denied, for it appears to have been written by someone who had little or 
no personal knowledge of the country, with a free use o?such materials as coidd 
be derived from Purchas, tlie semi-romantic histories of Captain Jolui Smitli, and 
tlie publication of Lord Baltimore in relation to Maryland, whose grant, most 
likely, gave rise to the speculation on the part of Plowdcn. Tlie publication of 
this tract was first made in 1648. That the description which it contains of the 
country was not more correct, arose from the fact that, being in possession of the 
Dutch, it was ahnost terra incognita to the English, and Plowden's own knowl- 
edge of it was hniited to New Amsterdam, the sea-coast, and perhaps tlie river 
Delaware. But there is abundant proof both of his title, such as he represented 
it to be, and of his actual presence in this country, asserting his claim, before the 
appearance of the " Description of the Province of Kew Albion."f 

His two visits to New Netlierland, prosecuting his title, are distinctly asserted 
in tlie text ; one in the time of Kieft, and the other in that of Stuyvesant. It is 
stated by Winthrop, sub anno 1648, that he arrived in Boston in that year, from 
Virginia, where he had been almost seven years, which agrees with the period 
stated, in the Description of ISfem Albion, for liis residence in the country. It was 
during tliis term that his visits were made to New Netherland, the last of which 
was on his way to Boston from Virginia, on his return to England, The work 



* Reprinted in Force's Collection of American Tracts. 

t This work purports to have been written by Beauchamp Plantagenet, who was doubtless 
fictitious personage. If not written by Plowden, it was prepared under his direction. In the 
second chapter, there is a reference to the Indian war during Kieft's administration, to the increase 
of the English population at Manhattan, and the furnishing ammunition to the Indians by Stuy- 
vesant,— facts within Plowden's knowledge, or someone who had been here, 



104 REPRESENTATION FROM 

appears to liavo l^een ]>ul>lislieJ iiuiuediately on his reacliing Englaiul. But the 
most interesting piece of eontemporaneous evidence in regard to this claim is to 
be found in the Jourual of Augustine Heeremans (one of the Nine Men), wlio, 
with Resolve Waldron, was sent as a commissioner, by Stuyvesant, to the gover- 
nor of Maryland, in reference to the disputes about the boundaries between their 
two colonies, in the year 3 659. Heeremans states that in their interview with 
Governor Fendall of Maryland, the latter claimed that the patent of Lord Bal- 
timore extended north to the patent of New England, and then says : " Upon 
which we asked, where then would New Nethei'land be, if their limits were to 
join those of New England? To this he answered, he did not know, y^'e then 
said we knew for both ; that it was n mistake, and that New Netherland was in 
possession of these limits several years before my Lord Baltimore obtained his 
patent, and that we actually settled these parts. "We brought forward also, 
among other facts, how Echn. Ploimkn in former dai/s laid claim to Delaware Bay. 
and we declared that the one i")retension liad no better support than the other. 
To which he replied that Plowden had not obtained a commission, and was 
thrown in jail in England for his debts. He acVnoviedged, however, that Flomleii 
solicited from the kintj a patent of Novum Albion, which was refused, whereupoii A« 
addressed himself to the Viceroy of Ireland, from whom he obtained a patent, but it 
was of no value at all." (Albany Records, Vol. 18, p. 340.) AVith this contempo- 
raneous testimony, we may appreciate the evidence, — the charter itself,— which 
has been prodnccd by Charles Varlo, who visited this country in 1(84 for the 
purpose of establishing the claim, of one third of which he had become the 
owner. Varlo having procured a copy of the charter from the Chancery rolls 
in Dublin, caused it to be translated from the Latin, in which it was written, 
and to be published and distributed, with copies of a lease and release, and also 
an address, among the inhabitants of this coiin(,ry. One of these publications 
we have now before us, with a proclamation in form of a handbill, addressed 
to the people of New Albion, in the name of the Earl of Albion. The ehartei', 
lease, and release were republished by Mr. Hazard, in the first volume of his 
Collections. The address to the public may be found in Mr. Pennington's Exam- 
ination of the pamphlet before mentioned, in the fonrtli volume of the Memoirs 
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The proclamation has not been re- 
published. The only copy which we know of, is the one for the use of which 
we are indebted to the kindness of Hon. Peter Force of Washington. 

This charter is from the Deputy General of Ireland, and is dated the 21st of 
Jime, in the tenth year of Charles I. (1634); and grants to Edmund Plowden, 
Knight, and to John Lawrence, Knight and Baronet, Bowyer Worsley, Knight, 
Charles Barrett and John Trusler, Roger Packe, William Inwood, Thomas Ri- 
bread, and George Noble, certain lands and premises to be erected into a pro- 
vince, and called New Albion, consisting of Long Island or Isle of Plowden, and 
of a part of the main land forming a square of one Imndred and twenty miles 
on each side, beginning at Cape May, thence along the river Delaware forty 
leagues, thence on a line at right angles north fortj' leagues, thence in a line at 



NOTES. lOo 

lïgUt angles east forty leagues, including Sand/ieci/ [Sandy Hook], and from 
thence south on the line of the square to Cape May; and also gi-ants to Plowden 
the title of Earl Palatine thereof. By the release, also dated in 16.34, the four 
patentees last above named convey their interests to the children of Edmund 
Plowden, and declare that the interest of Worsley and Barrett, had, in conse- 
quence of their death, passed to the surviving patentees. This eliarter vvns void, 
as made without authority, for whatsoever patents of lands in this country may 
have been lawfully issued by the royal colonial governors, no such grants were 
ever authorized to be made by any delegated power at home ; much less were 
political charters with jirovincial grants permitted to be given by subordinate 
.luthorities, either here or there. It was accordingly treated as a nullity by the 
English as well as by the Dutch. 

The occasion of the publication by Varlo was the purchase by him, before 
the Revolutionary war, from some person in England, of one third of this al- 
leged proprietary right. He came to this country in 1784, for the purpose of 
prosecuting the claim, and after his return to England published an account of 
his travels in America, with some facts connected with this claim, in a book 
which he called " Floating Ideas of Nature." (2 vols. 12mo. Lond. 1796.) 

Was there any settlement attempted by Plowden, and if so, where ? In the 
work of Vaido just alluded to, he states that Edward, the second* son of Sir 
Edmund Plowden, came to the palatinate, with his lady and two sons, for the 
purpose of enjoying the property ; but that they had not been long here when 
they were attacked by the Indians, and Edward and his lady murdered, the 
two children escaping. Whence he obtained this information does not appear 
precisely, though probably from Edmund Plowden, Esq., of Maryland, whom 
he visited during his tour in this countrj-, or from the Plowden familj- in Ire- 
land. 

We have ascertained some facts, which may well be taken into view in con- 
nection with the point we are now considering. It appears from the records at 
Annapolis, that one Edward Plowden took up a tract of land in St. Mary's 
county, Maryland, called " Plowden's discovery," on the 29th of March, 1742 ; 
and on the eighth of August following, two other tracts, making in all 666 
acres, which have ever since remained in the possession of his descendants, and 
are now called Bushwood. Edmund Plowden, one of these descendants, was, in 
1777, appointed a captain of militia in the upper battalion of St. Mary's county, 
and in the years 1783 and 1784, represented that county in the Legislature of 
Maryland. He is the member of the family visited by Varlo, who erroneously 
gives his name Edward. Tlie correct name, Edmund, which was the name of the 
patentee of New Albion, is a circumstance not to be disregarded in tlie present 
inquiry. Edmund J. Plowden, Esq., of Bushwood, the grandson of this Ed- 



* The names of Edmund Plowden's children are given in the Description of New AlMoit, as 
follows; Francis (the eldest), Thomas, "Winefrid, Barbara, and Katliarine. The name of Edward 
does not appear. 

1* 



106 NOTES. 

mund, informs us (in 1849), that, by tradition, he is descended from one of the 
sons of the Edward murdered by the Indians, whose names were Thomas and 
George, but at what time or at what particular place the murder happened is 
unknown. He states that Varlo called upon his grandfather with a view of ob- 
taining his aid in prosecuting the claim, which his grandfather declined, in eon- 
sequence of his advanced age and the difficulties which obviously presented 
themselves; and that there was a correspondence on the subject between his 
grandfather and Francis Plowden, the author of a well-known history of Ire- 
land. He further says, " My father dying when I was but a boy, many papers 
were either mislaid or destroyed, among them this very grant to Sir Edward,* 
which, when a boy, I have often seen, as also a book tracing the descent of our 
family at least from Sir Edward, down to my grandfather." Tlie Sir Edward 
here referred to is the one called by Varlo the second son of Sir Edmund How. 
den, the original claimant ; and the title prefixed to the names, which appears to 
have had no other foundation than the charter of New Albion, has been trans- 
mitted in the family to later members of it. He has also shown us a conveyance 
on parchment, with internal evidence of its antiquity, oï Rcs^trrection Manor in 
Maryland, made by Richard Perry to Thomas and George Plowden, dated 10th 
May, 1684, which proves them to have been in this country at a time consistently 
with the tradition. 

If any settlement were attempted, it must have been hy one of the Plowdens, 
probably a grandson if not a son of the original claimant. There is no mention 
in the Dutch records of any such attempt during the time the country was un- 
der the control of the West India Companjf. From the great minuteness with 
which every aggression of the English, and every other event connected with 
the possessions of the company, are stated in those records, it could not well have 
happened without some mention of it in them. There were three projects by 
the English to obtain a foothold on the Delaware, during the Dutch dynasty, 
which are stated ; — one by George Holmes in 1635, with a party of a dozen men, 
and is referred to in the Brief Statement of Van Tienhoven, in connection with 
the name of Thomas Hall, who was one of the part}' ; the second in 1641, by 
Mr. Lambertson, of New Haven ; and the third in 1659, by Lord Baltimore, 
which was the occasion of the embassy of Heermans and Waldron before re- 
ferred to. 

It appears to admit of little doubt that one of the Plowdens came over here 
after the return of Edmund, the original grantee, to enjoy the projjerty ; but, for 
the reasons given in regard to any settlement by the latter', it could not have been 
before the year 1664, when the Dutch power ceased in New Netherland. It is 
quite likely, that the conquest hj tho English revived the fallacious hopes of the 
Plowden family, and that they despatched one of their number, in after years, to 
this country. But where he attempted his settlement is unknown, as are also 

* This may have been either a conveyance from the famiiy, or tlie releose from the patentees, 
yseütn mentioned. 



NOTES. 107 

the circumstances of his tragic fate. If attempted anywhere within the limits 
of New Albion, it must have been in New Jersey. The annals of Long Island 
have been so fully preserved, as to render the absence of all allusion in them to 
the matter conclusive against the supposition of its having been tried there. 

We cannot dismiss the subject of NeAV Albion, without adverting to a state- 
ment contained in the work of Plantagenet, as the original source from which 
the historians of New York, with hardly an exception, have derived and trans- 
mitted an error connected with the conflicting claims of the Dutch and English 
to New Netherland. It is the alleged landing of Sir Samuel Argall on Manhat- 
tan island, in 1613, on his return voyage to Virginia from his expedition against . 
the French at Acadia. This is a pure fiction, unsustained by any good authori- 
ty. — though some writers have heaped up citations on the subject, — and as fully 
susceptible of disproof as any statement of that character at that early period 
can be. 



N T E C. See page 42. 



THE SWEDES ON THE DEL.IWARE. 

The historians of New Sweden have been in doubt as to the precise time of 
the arrival of the Swedes. Mr. Clay says, that Minuit brought over the first 
colonies about the year 1636. Mr. Ferris considers the time of his arrival un- 
certain, though he supposes from circumstances that it was early in the spring 
of 1638. Acrelius, who had the information before him, is not explicit; and 
Thomas Campanius is both ambiguous and wrong, as are all those who have re- 
lied upon him. 

The year is distinctly given in the text. It is said to be 1638, and " eleven 
years ago," that is, before 1649, when the Vertoogh was written. But we have 
it in our power not only to corroborate this statement, but to fix the month, by 
evidence of a different character. Among the London Documents procured by 
the historical agent of New York, is a letter from the Treasurer of Virginia, 
Jerome Hawley, to Mr. Secretary "Windebanke, dated " Jamestown, in Virginia, 
8th May, 1638," in which the following passage occurs: "Since which tyme 
(20th March last), heare arrived a Dutch shipp with commission from the yong 
Queone of Sweaden, and signed by eight of the chiefe Lordes of Sweaden, the 
coppe whereof I would have taken to send to yo'r Hon'r, but the Captayne would 
not permit me to take any coppe thereof, except he might have free trade for to- 



108 NOTES. 

baceo to enrry to Sweden, which being eontravy to liis Maj'ts instructions the 
Govern'r excused himself thereof. The shipp remained heare about 10 days to 
refresh with wood and water, during which tyme, tlie M'r of said shipp made 
knowne that both liimselfe and another shipp of his company, were bound for 
Delaware Baye, which is the confines of Virginia and New England, and they 
p'tend to make a plantation and to plant tobacco, which the Dutch do allso al- 
ready in Hudson's river, which is the very next river Northard from Delaware 
Baye. All which being his Mat's terretorys, ifec." (London Doe. Vol. I.) The 
two ships, which were the Key of C'abnar and the Cfrlffin, must have been in 
Virginia at or after the 1st of April, supposing them to have arrived the very 
day after the 20th of March, referred to in this letter, as they staid there ten 
days to wood and water, which woidd have consumed all the month of March 
at least. At all events, it is certain they could not have arrived in the Dela- 
ware, to sail to which would have taken another day, before the 1st of April. 
The probabilities are that they did not arrive in Virginia ou the day after the 
'iOtli of March, because if they had done so, it would probably have been so 
stated in the letter ; and consequently they did not reach the Delaware until 
some days after the 1st of April. 

Tlie point then remains, how late a day could this ha\'e been^ Hawley's 
letter was written on the 10th of May, before which time they hadl eft Vir- 
ginia ; and, allowing that thej' left on the previous day, which is the latest one 
consistentl}' with his letter, and that it took even two or three days to get to the 
Delaware, wo have the latest period, the 11th or 12th of May as the time 
of their arrival. That it was not, however, so late as this, may be gathered 
from another record in connection with the text; the protest of Director Kieft 
at New Amsterdam on the occasion, complaining of the Swedes for having be- 
gun " to build a fort between our forts," that is between the Hoerekil and fort 
Nassau. The date of the protest is variously given by different writers, Acre- 
lius, and Smith, the historian of New York, stating it to be the 0th of May, and 
others the 17th of that month. The record at Albany, from whence it has been 
taken by all of them, lias no date ; but it occurs in a book in which the date of 
the record before it is the 6th, and of that which follows is the llih of May. 
Hence the discrepancy. Supposing it, however, to have been issued on the l7th, 
how much time had elapsed at that day after the Swedes reached the Delaware ? 
Now, it is stated in the Vertoogh that the Swedes did not begin their fort at their 
first arrival, and that it was not until the third visit of the Dutch to them that 
any attempt of that kind was discovered. They busied themselves at first in 
obtaining wood and water for their sliips, which returned home in June, leaving 
some colonists behind ; and then in planting a kitchen garden. This must have 
taken some time ; and it was not until after this that the fort was commenced, 
and information of that fact sent to Kieft at New Amsterdam, a long, and at 
that time tedious journey from Fort Nassau (Gloucester Point in New Jersey — 
some miles below Philadelphia) ; for, as before observed, he distinctly protests 
against the building of the fort. Hence the conclusion is irresistible, that the 



NOTES. 109 

first entry in the Delaware by the Key of Calmnr and the Grifhn, must have 
been before the 1st of May. AVe will not attemjrt to fix the precise day, for 
that is impossible ; but that the month -was Aj)ril, seems to admit of no question. 
The statement of Campanius, which makes the first coming of the Swedes 
under different auspices and in an earlier year, 1631, in pursuance of an edict of 
Gustaviis, confirmed by the Diet in 1627 upon the representation of Usselinx, is 
not founded upon any evidence which has ever been produced in this country or 
in Sweden, nor is it corroborated bj- a single other writer. Mr. Arfwedson errs 
when he quotes Biörck, as an authority that the first emigration to the colony 
was made in 1627, and that tlie building of Fort Christina took place in 1631. 
(Arfwed. de eoltmia K'ova Svecia deducla Idsioriolu, p. 10.) The language of Biörck 
is this: "As to what concerns the first arrival of the Swedes in America we 
may observe, according to Th. Campanius Holm, p. 57, that the first expedition 
thither was made in the year 1627, during the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, 
which was followed by othere in the time of Queen Christina. Tlie originator 
of the first expedition was William Usselinx, a Batavian, ifec." {Dissert, dc plant. 
p. 5.) All this statement, it will be seen, is declared to be made on the authority 
of Campanius, and not on that of Biörck himself. We are, therefore, thrown back 
upon Campanius, who had never been in this countr}'. His description of S'ew 
Sweden was derived from the notes of his grandfather, the Rev. John Campan- 
ius, who came over with Governor Printz, and was in the country six years. So 
far as the grandson confines liiraself to the matters known by his ancestor, he 
may be depended upon ; but when he goes beyond them, he is constantly floim- 
dering in error. Biörck quotes, in the same paragraph in which the above pas- 
sage occurs, from a much more reliable source in relation to this very point, and 
in contradiction of Campanius, — from Rev. Andrew Sandel, who was minister of 
the church at Wioaco (now a part of Philadelphia) from 1702 to 1719. Biörck, 
speaking of the expedition of John Printz to the Delaware in 1642, says, "But 
as we learn ft'oni the observations of Mr. Sandel, colonists probably not less nu- 
merous, were previously [that is, before Printz' arrival] sent over to these parts 
of America, under a very prudent man, Meneve [Miuuit], a Belgian. It is said 
that he was the first governor of the Hollanders who inhabit the territory of 
jS"ew Jersey ; but, as a quarrel took place between him and them, he was compelled 
to retm'n home, where he was arraigned and deprived of his ofiiee. For this 
reason he left his coimtry and went to Sweden, where iipon a representation to 
the chief men of the great fertility and excellence of the country, he at length 
obtained permission to conduct thither a new colonj-. Upon his death, Peter 
HoUender succeeded to his place, who is considered to have been the first gov- 
ernor there." No allusion is made by Sandel to the alleged colony during the 
reign of Gustavus, which he would certainly have done if it had ever existed. 
He uses the term " new colony," evidently in contradistinction to the Dutch 
colony of which Minuit had been the governor, for he speaks of no other. 



110 ÏNÜTES. 



N O T E D. See page 59. 

THE INSCRIPTION ON TUE FIRST DUTCH CHURCH. 

The site of the first chxireh Ijiiilt in New Netherlaiid was in front of what is 
now called the Bowling Green, being the same spot on wliieh Fort Amsterdam, 
which received successively the names of the reigning monarchs of Great Brit- 
ain, after its conquest from the Dutch until the Revolution, was erected, as stated 
in this work. The fort called Fort George, was, by authority of law, razed to 
the ground in 1*?90, for the purpose of locating the Government House, which 
subsequently stood there. On removing the rubbish of the fort, the inscription 
on the old church was found. The following paragraph, recording the fact, may 
be found in the New York Magazine for 1790. 

"June 28. On Monday last, in digging away the foundation of the fort in this city, a square 
stone was found among the ruins of a chapel (which formerly stood in the fort) with the following 
Dutcli inscription on it : 

Ao. Do. MDCXLII. W. 

Kieft Dr. Gr. Heeft de 

Gemeenten Dese Tem 

pel doen Bouwen, 

( Translatlmi.) 
•^ In the year of our Lord 1G42, "William Kieft, Director General, caused the congregation to 
build this church.^' 

The stone was removed to the belfry of the Garden Street Church, which 
was destroyed by the great fire of 18S3, and with which was lost this interest- 
ing memorial of the first church in New Netherland. 



N T E E. See page 96. 

VAN TIENHOYEn's ANSWER TO THE VEKTOOGH. 

Justice demands that we should give the answer of Stuyvesant, by his secre- 
tary, to the charges of the complainants. Van Tienhoven, with all his faults, 
was a man of ability, and he presented his points with force and succinctness. 
He entered upon no defense of himself — whether from prudence, in order to 
avoid a personal issue in an aftair of such great interest to his employers, or from 
a consciousness of their truth, is uncertain. Probabl}' both considerations oper- 
ated upon him. He was shrewd enough to display no feeling ; while it appears 
to be well established that his habits were loose and profligate, though he eon. 



S-OTES. Ill 

tiiiucj, not-n-itlistaudiug, to retain tlie confijeuco of Stuyvesant fur a long time> 
and eren after lie had lost that of the company, as he was dismissed by him from 
the serriee of tlie company only upon its repeated peremptory order (Alby. Re- 
cords, VoL IT. 14, 207, and 21*?) which took place in 16S6. In his reply. Van 
Tienhoven retaliated upon the signers of the remonstrance bj- a deserijitiou of 
them, individually, intended to be not very flattering to them, with which he 
closes his cort bericht, or brief statement. Tliis reply, with the remonstrance, 
afibrd us a good insight into the earlier management of the AVest India Com- 
pany in S"ew Xetherlaud. Tlie answer was never jirinted, and was found among 
the royal archives at the Hague, by ilr. Brodliead, whence it was transcribed 
into the Holland documents of our State, and from them it is now translated as 
follows : 

"A brief statement or ansiKr to some points embraced in the uritteii deduction of 
Adrian van der Donk and his associates, presented to the High and Mighty Lords 
States General. Prepared by Coktelis vax Tlexhovex, Secretary of the Direc- 
tor and Council of New Netherland. 

"In order to present the aforesaid answer succinctly, he, Van Tienhoven, 
wiU allege not only that it üly becomes the aforesaid Van, der Donk and other 
private pereons to assail and abuse the administration of the managers in this 
country, and that of their governors there,* in such hai-sh and general terms, 
but that they would much better discharge their duty if they were first to bring 
to the notice of their lords and pati'ons what they had to complain o£ But 
passing by this point, and leaving the consideration thereof to the discretion of 
your High Mightinesses, he observes preliminarily and generaDy, that these per- 
sons say much and prove little, so that it could as easUy, and with more truth, 
be denied, than by them it is affirmed. 

" Coming then to the matter, I wiU only touch upon those points as to wliieh 
either the Bewinthebbei-s or the directors are arraigned. In regard to point X"o. 
1, it is denied, and it never wiU appear that the company have refused to permit 
people to make settlements in the country, and allowed foreigners to take up 
the land. 

" The policy of the company was to act on the defensive. As they had not 
the power to resist their pretended friends, and could only protect their rights 
by protest, this was better and more prudent than to come to hostilities. 

" Trade has long been free to everyone, and as profitable as ever. Nobody's 
goods were confiscated, except those who had violated their contract, or the order 
by which they were forbidden ; and if anybody thinks that injustice has been 
done him by confiscation, he can speak for himself. At all events, it does not 
concern these people. 



' In Nevr Netherland. \-am1 ieboven prepared this answer in Holland. 



112 NOTES. 

" They complaiu that the Christians are treated like tlie Indians in tlie sale 
of goods, -wliieh is admitted ; but that has not been by the eompany, nor by the 
directors, because (God help them) they have not had any thing there to sell 
for many years. Most of the remonstrants are merchants or factors, and are 
themselves the persons who, for those articles ■whicli cost here one hundred guil- 
ders, charge there, over and above tlie first cost, including insurance, duties, la- 
borer's wages, freight, «fee., one and two hundred per cent, or more jirofit. Here 
can be seen at once how these people lay to the charge of managers and their 
officers the very fiiult which they tliemsclves commit. Tliey can never show, 
even at the time the company had their shop and magazines there, that the 
goods were sold at more than fifty ]wr cent, profit, in conformity with the ex- 
emptions. The forestalling of the goods by one and another, and the demanding 
this profit, was not prevented by the director, as the trade was thrown open to 
botli those of small and those of large means. 

" It is a pure calumny, that the company had ordered half a faiüt to be reck- 
oned for a whole one. 

" And, as it does not concern the inhabitants what iustructions or orders tlie 
patroons give to tlie director, the charge is made for the purpose of bringing 
about, that these people may live witliout being subject to the censure or disci- 
pline of any one, whiïli, however, they stand doubly in need of. 

" Again it is said in general terms, but wherein should be specified and 
proven, that the director exercises, and has usurped, sovereign power. 

" That the inhabitants Iiave had need of the directors, appears liy the books 
of accounts, in whicli it can be seen that the company has assisted all the free- 
men (some few excepted), witli clothing, jirovisions, and other things, and in the 
erection of liouses, and at a rate from fifty to one hundred jicr cent, advance 
above the first cost in the Fatherland, and these amounts are not j'et paid by the 
complainants. It would be very agreeable, no doubt, to deprive the company 
of the country, and thus get rid of paying them. 

" It is ridiculous to suppose Director Kieft should have said that he was sov- 
ereign, like the Prince in the Fatherland ; but as relates to the denial of appeal 
to the Fatherland, it arose from this, that, in the exemptions, the Island of the 
Manhatans was reserved as the capital of New Netherlands, and all the adjacent 
colonies were to have their appeal to it as the Supreme Court of that region. 

" Besides, it is to be remarked, that the jiatroon of the colony of Renselaers- 
wyek notified all the inhabitants not to appeal to the Manhatans, which was 
contrary to the exemptions, by which the colonies are bound to make a yearly 
report of the state of the colony, and of the administration of justice, to the 
director and council on the Manhatans. 

" The directors have never had any management of, or meddled with, church 
property'. And it is not known, nor can it be proven, that any one of the inhab- 
itants of New Netherlands has contributed or given, either voluntarily or upon 
solicitation, any thing for the erection of an orphan asylum, or an alms house. 
It is true the ehtirch was bxiilt in the fort in the time of 'WilliBm Kieft, and 1,800 



NOTES. 113 

guilders wei-e subscribed for the piupose, for which most of the subscribers have 
teen charged in their accounts, which have not yet been paid. The company, 
in the mean time, has disbm-sed the money, so that the commonalty has not, but 
the company has, paid the workmen. If the commonalty desire the aforesaid 
works, they must contribute towards them, as is done in this country ; and, if 
there be an orjihan asjdimi and alms house, the rents should be able not only to 
keep up the house, but also to maintain the orphans and old people. 

" If any one could show that by will, or by donation of a living j')erson, any 
money, or movable or immovable property, has been bestowed for such or any 
other public work, the remonstrants would have done it; but there is in New 
Hetherland no instance of the kind, and the charge is spoken or written in an- 
ger. When the 'church, which is in the fort, was to be built, the church war- 
dens were content it should be put there. These persons complain because they 
considered the company's fort not worthy of a church. When the church was 
built, could the grist mill not grind with a southeast wind if the (other) wind 
was shut off by the walls of the fort? 

" Although the new school, towards which the commonalty has contributed 
something, is not yet biiilt, and the director has no management of the money, 
but the church-wardens have, yet the director is busy in providing materials. 
In the mean time a place has been selected for a school, where the school is 
kept by Jan CorneUssen. The other schoolmasters keep school in hired houses, 
so that the youth, considering the circumstances of the country, are not in want 
of schools. It is true there is no Latin school or academy, but if any of the 
commonalty desire it, they can furnish the means and attempt it. 

"As to what concerns the deacon's, or poor fund, the deacons are aecoimt- 
able, and are the persons to be inquired of as to where the money is invested, 
which they have from time to time put out at interest ; and as the director has 
never had the management of it (as against eonunon nsage), the deacons are 
responsible for it, and not the director. It is true Director Kieft, being dis- 
tressed for mone}', had a box hung in his house, of which the deacons had the 
key, and in which all the small fines and penalties which were incurred on 
court-days were dropped. With the consent of the deacons he opened it, and 
took on interest the money, which amounted to a pretty sum. 

" It is admitted that the beer excise of William Kieft, and the wine excise of 
Peter Stuyvesant, were imposed and continued to be collected up to the time of 
my leaving there ; but it is to be observed here, that the memorialists have no 
reason to complain about it, for the merchant, burgher, farmer, and all others 
(tapsters only excepted), can lay in as much beer and wine as they please, with- 
out paying any excise ; being only bound to give an account of it, in order that 
the quantity may be ascertained. The tapsters pay three guilders for each tun 
of beer, and one styver for each can of wine, which they get back again fi-om 
their daily visitors, and the travelers from New England, Virginia, and else- 
where. 

' ' The commonalty, up to that time, were burdened with no other internal 

15 



114 NOTES. 

taxes than the before-mentioned excise, unless tlae vohmtavy gifts which were 
two years since made for the erection of the church, be considered a tax, dï 
which Jacob Couwenhoven,* who is one of the church-wardens, will be able to 
give an account. 

" In New England there are no taxes or duties imposed upon goods exported 
or imported ; but every person is there assessed by the government, according 
to his means, and so is compelled by the magistrates to pay for the building and 
repairing of churches and the support of the ministers ; for the building of 
Echoolhouses and the support of schoolmasters ; for aU city and village improve- 
ments, and the mating and keeping in repair all public roads and paths, whicli 
are there made many miles into the country, so that they can be used by horses 
and carriages, and journeys made from one place to another;' for constructing 
and keeping up all bridges over rivers, for the accommodation of passengers ; 
for the building of hotels for travelers, and for the maintenance of governors, 
magistrates, marshals, and officers of justice, and of majors, captains, and other 
officers of the militia. 

" In every province of New England, there is quarterly a general assembly 
of all the magistrates of such province; and there is yearly a general convention 
of all the provinces, each of which sends one deputy, with his suite, which con- 
vention lasts a long time. All their traveling exjienses, board, and compensa- 
tion, are there raised from the people. 

" The accounts will show what was the amount of recognitions collected 
annually in Kieft's time ; but it will not appear that it was as large by far as 
they say the people were compelled to pay. This is not the company's fault 
nor the directors', but of those who charge one, two, and three hundred per 
cent, profit, which the people are compelled to pay because there are few 
tradesmen. 

"It will never appear that 30,000 guilders are collected from the common- 
alty in Stuyvesant's time ; for nothing is received besides the beer and wine 
excise, which amounts to about 4,000 guilders on the Manhatans. From the 
other villages situated around it, there is little or nothing collected, because 
there are no tapsters, except one at the Ferry, f and one at Flushing. 

"There is nothing confiscated belonging to the commonalty, and only con- 
\ trabaud goods of foreigners ; and of these, nobody's goods are confiscated with- 
out good cause. 

"The question is, whether the Honorable Company or the directors are 
bound to construct any works for the commonalty out of the recognitions which 
the trader pays in New Netherland for goods exported, especially as those duties 
were allowed to the company by their High Mightinesses for the establishment 



* One of the three delegates from the commonalty, then in Holland. 

t This was in Brooklyn. The vill.age of Breukclen was a mile distant from the river; and 
the hamlet at the river was called The Ferry, 



NOTES. 115 

of garrisons, and tlie expenses which they wonhl thereby incur, and not for the 
constrnotion of hospitals, orphan asylums, or churches and school-houses. 

" The charge that the jiroperty of the company is neglected in order to 
make fi'iends, cannot be sustained by proof. 

" Tlie provisions in exchange for the negroes who came from Tamandare 
were sent to Curacoa, except a portion consumed on the Manhatans, as the ac- 
counts will show ; but all these are matters which do not concern these persons, 
especially as they are not accountable for them. 

" As to what relates to the contract of the free persons, the director has gra- 
ciously granted the negroes who were the company's slaves, to give them their 
freedom, in consequence of their long service, on condition that their children 
should remain slaves, who are not treated otherwise than as Christians. At 
present there are only three of these children who do any service, one of them 
is at the House of Hope,* one at the company's bouwery, and one with Martin 
Crigier, who has brought the girl up well, as everj'body knows. 

" That the Heer Stuyvesant should build up, alter, and repair the company's 
property, was his duty. For the consequent loss or profit, he will answer to the 
company. 

" The burghers upon the island of Manhatans, and thereabouts, must know 
that nobody comes or is admitted to New Nethcrland (being a conquest), except 
upon this condition, that he shall have nothing to say, and shall acknowledge 
himself under the sovereignty of their High Mightinesses, the States General, 
and the Lords Bewinthebbers, as their lords and patrons, and shoxüd be obe- 
dient to the director and eoimcil for the time being, as good subjects are bound 
to be. 

" Those who have complained about the haughtiness of Stuyvesant, I think 
are such as seek to live without law or rule. 

" Their complaint that no regulation was made in relation to sewan, js un- 
ti'ue. During the time of Director Kieft, good sewan passed at four for a stiver, 
and the loose bits were fixed at six pieces for a stiver. Tlie reason why the 
loose sewan was not prohibited, was because there was no coin in circulation, 
and the laborers, boors, and other common people having no other money, 
would be great losers; and had it been done, the remonstrants would, without 
doubt, have included it among their grievances, f 



* On the Connecticut river. 

+ Sewan long continued to be a part of the currency among tlie whites as well as the luilians, 
and was even paid in tlie Sunday collections in the churches. It was made, for the most part, of 
the shell of the hard clam ; that made out of the bl lie part, or heart, of the shell having the highest 
value. It was in sh.ape and size like common beads, and was perforated longitudinally, so as to 
be strung. Kieft's regulation, referred to by Van Tienboven, which was adopted on ICth April, 
1641, declared that tlie rough or loose sewan, worth six for a stiver, came from other places; and 
it was the Manhatan sewan which he fixed at four for a stiver, and wliich was consequently the 
best. 



116 NOTES. 

" Kobody can prove tliat Director Stuyvesant had used foul language to, or 
railed at as clowns, any persons of respectability who had treated him decently. 
It may be tliat some profligate has given the director, if he has used any bad 
words to him, cause to do so. 

" That the fort is not properly repaired, does not concern the inhabitants. 
It is not their domain, but the company's. They are willing to be protected 
by good forts and garrisons belonging to the company, without furnishing any 
aid or assistance, by labor or money, for the purpose ; but it appears they are 
not willing to see a fort we'll fortified and properly garrisoned, from the apin-e- 
hension that malevolent and seditious persons will be better imnished, which 
they call cruelty. 

" Had the director not been compelled to provide the garrisons of New Neth- 
erland and Cura^oa with provisions, clothing, and pay, the fort would, doubtless, 
have been completed. 

"Against whom has Director Stuyvesant personally made a question without 
reason or cause ? 

"A present of maize, or Indian corn, they call a contribution ; but a present 
is never received from the Indians without its being doubly paid for ; as these 
people, being very covetous, throw out a herring for a codfisli, as everybody who 
knows the Indians can bear witness. 

" Francis Doughty, father-in-law of Adrian van der Donk, and an English 
minister, was allowed a colony at Mestpaeht, not for himself alone, as patroon, 
but for him and his associates, dwelling in Rhode Island, at Cohanock and other 
places, from whom he had a power of attorney, and of whom a Mr. Smith was 
one of the principal ; for the said minister liad scarcely any means of himself to 
build even a hovel, let alone to people a colony at his own expense ; but was to 
be employed as minister by his associates, who were to establish him on a farm 
in the«Baid colony, for which he would discharge ministerial duties among them, 
and live upon the profits of the farm. 

" Coming to the Manhatans to live during the war, he was permitted by the 
English dwelling about there to officiate for them as minister ; and they were 
bound to maintain him, without either the director or the company being liable 
to any charge therefor. The English not giving him wherewith to live on, two 
collections were made among tlie Dutch and English, by means of which he lived 
at the Manhatans. 

" The said colony of Mespaeht was never confiscated, as is shown by the 
owners still living there, who were interested in the colony with Doughty; but 
as Doughty wished to hinder population, and to permit no one to build in the 
colony unless he were willing to pay a certain amount of money down for every 
morgen of land, and a certain yearly sum in addition in the nature of ground- 
rent, and also sought to have a property therein distinct from the others inter- 
ested in the colony, the director and council (Mr. Smith especially having com- 
plained), determined that the associates might enter upon their property, — the 
farm and lands which Doughty possessed being reserved to him ; so that he has 



NOTES. 117 

suffered no loss or damage thereby. This I could prove, ■srere it not that the 

documents are in New Netherland, and not here. i 

" There are no clauses inserted in the grouud-briefs, contrary to the exemp- | 

tions, but the words nog te beramen (hereafter to be imposed) can be left out of ' 

the ground briefs, if they be deemed offensive. 

" Stuy vesant has never disputed in court, but, as president, put proper inter- 
rogatories to the parties, and delivered the judgment of the court about; which 
the malevolent complain; but it must be proven that anyone has been wronged 
by Stuyvesant in court. V 

" As to what relates to the Second (Vice Director) Dinclagen, let him settle ^ 

his own matters. 

" It can be shown that Brian Newton not only imderstands the Dutch tongue, 
but also speaks it, so that their charge, that Newton does not understand the 
director's language, is imtrue. All the other slanders and calumnies uttered 
against the remaining officers should be required to be proven. 

" It is true that in New Netherland, a certain discourse was had to the effect 
that there was no appeal from a judgment in New Netherland, pronounced on 
the island of Mardiatans, founded on the exemptions by which the island of 
Manhatans was established as the capital of all the surrounding colonies, and 
also that there had never been a ease in which an appeal from New Netherland 
had been entertained by their High Mightinesses. It had been petitioned for 
when Hendriot Jansen Snyder, Laurens Cornelissen, and others, many years ago, 
we]'e banished from New Netherland. It would be a very strange thing if the 
officers of the comjjany could banish nobody from the country, while the officers 
of the colony of Renselaerswyck, who are subordinate to the company, can 
banish absolutely from the colony whomever they may deem advisable for the 
good of the colony, and permit no one to dwell there unless with their approba- 
tion, and upon certain conditions, some of which are as follows : Nobody, in the 
first place, can possess a foot of land of his own, but is obliged to take ujion 
rent aU the land which he cultivates. "When a house is erected, he is obliged to 
pay an armual ground-rent in beavers, and so also must the boors, for whiclr 
they allow them free trade, as they call it. "Where is there an inhabitant under 
the jurisdiction of the company who expends or lays out an}^ thing for trade or 
land? All the farms are conveyed in fee, subject to the clause beraamt ofte nog 
te heramen (taxes imposed or to be imposed). 

" The English minister, Francis Doughty, has never been in the service of 
the company, wherefore it was not indebted to him ; but his English congrega- 
tion are bound to pay him, as may be pi'oven in New Netherland. 

" The company has advanced the said minister, from time to time, goods 
and necessaries of life, amounting to about 1,100 guilders, as the books of the 
colony can show, which he has not yet paid, and which he claims he should not 
pay. "Whether or not the director has desired a comjDromise witli Doughty, I 
do not know. 

"Director Stuyvesant, when he came to New Netherland, ende-ivored, 



118 NOTES. 

according to liis orders, to stop in a proper manner tlie contraband trade in 
guns, powder, and lead. The people of the colony of Renselaer-wj'ck uudei'- 
standing this, sent a letter to the director, requesting moderation, especially, as 
they said, if that trade were entirely abolished, all the Christians in the colony 
-wonld run great danger of being murdered, as may more at lai'ge be seen by 
the contents of their petition. 

"The director and council, taking the reqiiest into consideration, and look- 
ing further into the consequences, resolved that guns and powder, to a limited 
extent, be sparingly furnished by the commissary at Fort Orange, on account 
of the company, taking good care that no supply should be carried by the boats 
navigating the river, unless in pursuance of a further order. It is here to be 
observed that the director, in order to keep the colony out of danger, has per- 
mitted some arms to be furnished at the fort. Nobody can prove that the 
director has sold or pei-mitted to be sold any thing contraband, for liis own 
private benefit. That the director has permitted some guns to be seized, has 
happened because they brought with them no license pursuant to the order of 
the company, and they woiüd, under such pretenses, have been able to bring 
many guns. The director has paid for every one that was seized, sixteen guild- 
ers, although it did not cost in this country more than eight or nine guilders. 

" It is true that a case of guns was brought over by Vastrick, by order of 
Director Stuyvesant, in which there were thirty guns, which the director, with 
the knowledge of the Second (Vice-Director Dincklagen) and fiscal, permitted 
to be landed in the full light of day, which guns were delivered to Commissary 
Keyser, with orders to sell them to the Netherlanders, who had no arms, in 
order that in time of need they might defend themselves, which Keyser has 
done ; and it will appear by his accounts where these guns are. If there were 
any more guns in the ship, it was unknown to the director. The fiscal, whose 
business it was, should liavc seen to it and inspected the ship ; and these accus- 
ers should have shown that the fiscal had neglected to make the search as it 
ought to have been done. 

"Jacob Reinsen and Jacob Schermerhorn were a firm of merchants from 
Waterland, one of whom, Jacob Schermerhorn, was at Fort Orange, the other, 
Jacob Reintjes, was at Fort Amsterdam, who there bought powder, lead, and 
guns, and sent them up to Schermerhorn, who supplied the Indians. It so hap- 
pened that the company's corporal, Govcrt Barent, having in charge such of the 
arms of the company as required to be repaired or cleaned, sold to the before- 
named Jacob Reintjes, guns, locks, gun-barrels, &c., as by Jacob Reintjes' own 
acknowledged letters, written to his partner long before this came to light, and 
by the information of the corporal, can be proven. The corporal, seduced by 
the solicitation of Jacob Reintjes, sold him the arms as often as desired, though 
' the latter knew that the guns and gun-barrels belonged to the company, and 
not to the corporal. Therefore, a parcel of peltries (as may be seen in the 
accounts), bought, as appeared from the letters, with contraband goods, was 
confiscated. As the said Jacob Reintjes has been in this country since the con- 



NOTES. 119 

fiscatioii, lio woukl have made complaint if he had not been guilty, especially as ' 

he was suffifciently urged to do so by the enemies of the company and of the J 

director; but his own letters were witnesses asraiust him. • 

"Joost de Backer being accused by the above-named corjioi-al of having ' 

bought gun-locks and gun-barrels from him, and the first information having 
proved correct, he was therefore taken into custody, and his_ house searched 
according to law, in which was found a gun of the company ; wherefore lie 
gave security (to answer) for the claim of the fiscal. . 

" As the English of New England protected among them all fugitives who § 

came to them from the Manhatans without the passport required by the usage 
of the country, whether persons in the service of the company or freemen, and 
took them into their service, it was therefore sought by commissioners to induce 
the English to restore the fugitives, according to an agreement previously made 
with Governors Eaton and Hopkins ; bvxt as Governor Eaton persisted in refus- 
ing to send back the runaways, although earnestly solicited to do so, the 
director and coimcil, according to a previous resolution, issued a proclamation 
that all persons who should come from the province of New Haven (all the 
others excejited) to New Nethcrland should be protected ; which was a retalia- 
tory measm-e. As the governor permitted some of the fugitives to come back 
to us, the director and coimcil annulled the order, and since then matters have 
gone on peaceably, the same as before the dispute about the boimdaries. 

" Nobody's goods are confiscated in New Nethcrland without great reason ; 
and if anyone feels aggrieved about it, the director will be prepared to furnish 
an answer. That ships or shipmasters are afraid of confiscation, and therefore 
do not come to New Netherland, is probable, for nobody can come to New Neth- 
crland without a license or permit. "Whoever has this, and does not violate his 
agreement, and has properly entered his goods, need not be afraid of confisca- 
tion ; but all smugglers and persons who sail with two commissions may well 
be. 

" All those who were indebted to the companjr, were warned by the director 
and council to pay the debts left uncollected by the late William Kieft, and as 
some could, and others could not well pay, no one was compelled to pay ; but 
these debts, amounting to 30,000 guilders, made many, who did not wish to pay, 
angry and insolent (especially as the company now had nothing in that country 
to sell them on credit), and it seemed that some sought to pay after the Brazil 
fashion.* 

" The memorialists have requested that the people should not be oppressed, 
which, however, has never been the case ; but they would be right glad to see 
that the company dunned nobody, nor demanded their own, yet paid their 



* This is an allusion to the recent loss, by the company, of Brazil, -ïvhich had been tJiken from 
them by the Portuguese, whereby their debtors there got rid of their debts. 



120 NOTES. 

creditors. It will appear Ijy tlic aecouut books of tlie company, that the debts 
were not contracted during the "war, but before it. The company has assisted 
the inhabitants, who were poor and burdened with wives and children, with 
clothing, houses, cattle, land, &e., and from time to time charged them in ac- 
count, in hopes of their being able at some time to pay for them. 

" If the taxes of New England, before spoken of, be compared with those of 
New Netherland, it wiU be found that those of New England are a greater bur- 
den upon that coimtry than the taxes of New Netherland are upon our people. 

" The wine excise of one stiver per can, was first laid in the year lëil. 

" The beer excise, of three guilders per tim, was imposed by Kieft, in 1644, 
and is paid by the tapster, and not by the burgher. 

" The recognition of eight in a hundred, upon imported beaver skins, does 
not come out of the inhabitants, but out of the trader, who is bound to jiay it, 
according to contract. 

" The director has always shown that he was desirous and pleased to see a 
deputation from the commonalty, who should seek, in the Fatherland, from the 
company, as patrons, and the Lords States, as sovereigns, the following : popu- 
lation, settlement of boundaries, reduction of charges upon New Netherland 
tobacco and other productions, means of transporting people, permanent and 
solid privileges, &c. 

" For which purpose he has always lent a helping hand ; bxit the remon- 
strants have secretly gone round exciting some of the commonalty, and by that 
means obtained a clandestine and secret subscription, as is to be seen by their 
remonstrance, designed for no other object than to render the company, their 
patrons, and the ofiieers in New Netherland, odious before their High Mighti- 
nesses, so that the company might be deprived of the jns patronatus, and be 
stiU further injured. 

" The remonstrants say that we had relied upon the English, and by means 
of them sought to divert the college (as they call it), which is untrue, as appears 
by the propositions made to them. But it is here to be observed that the Eng- 
lish living imder the protection of the Netherlanders, having taken the oath of 
allegiance, and being domiciliated and settled in New Netherland, are to be con- 
sidered citizens of the country. These persons have always been opposed to 
them, since the English, as well as they, had a right to say something in relation 
to the deputation, and would not consent to all their calumnies and slanders, 
but looked to the good of the commonalty and of the inhabitants. 

" It was never written in a letter, upon their solicitation, that they might 
secretly go and speak to the commonalty. The intention of the director was, 
to cause them to be called together at his own time, as opportunity should offer, 
at which time they might speak to the commonalty, publiclj', about the dejiu- 
tation. The director was not obliged, as they say, to call the commonalty 
immediately together. It was to be considered by him at what time each one 
could conveniently come from home without loss, especially as some lived at a 
distance in the country, &c. 



I 



NOTES. 121 

" That tliey have not been -williug to communicate, was because all whom 
they had slandered would have been able to have provided themselves with the 
means of defense, and made the contrai'y appear, and in that ease eoidd have 
produced something from some of them. And since the director and those con- 
nected with the administration in New Netherland are very much wronged and 
defamed, I desire time, in order to wait for opposing documents from New 
Netherland, if it be necessary. 

" Vander Donk and his associates say that the director instituted suits 
against some persons. The director, going to the house of Michael Jansen (one 
of the signers of the remonstrance), was wai-ned by the said Michael and Thomas 
Hall, saying, there was within it a scandalous journal of Adrian van der Donck ; 
which journal the director took with him ; and on account of the slanders which 
were contained in it against their High Mightinesses, and private individuals. 
Van der Donck was arrested at his lodgings, and proof of what he had written 
demanded ; but it was dispensed with on the application and solicitation of 
others. 

"During the administration both of Kieft and Stuyvesant, it was by a plac- 
ard published and posted, that no attestation or other public writing should be 
valid before a court in Netherland, unless it were written by the seeretarj'. 
This was not done in oi-der that there should be no testimony (against the di- 
rector), but upon this consideration, that most of the people living in New Nether- 
land are country or seafaring men, and summon each other frequently for small 
matters before a court, while many of them can neither read nor write, and 
neither testify intelligibly nor produce written evidence, and if some do produce 
it, sometimes it is wi-itten by a sailor or a boor, and is often wholly indistinct 
and repugnant to the meaning of those who had it written, or who made the 
statement ; consequently, the director and council could not know the truth of 
matters, as was proper, and as justice demanded, &C. Nobody has been arrested 
except Van der Donck for writing the journal, and Augustus Heermans, the 
agent of Gabri, because he refused to exhibit the writings drawn up by the 
Nine Men, which were reported to the director, who had been for them many 
times like a boy. 

" Upon the first point of redress, as they call it, the remonstrants advise, that 
the company should abandon the country. WTiat frivolous advice this is 1 The 
company have, at their own expense, conveyed cattle and many persons thither, 
built forts, protected many people who were poor and needy, emigrating from 
Holland, and provided them with provisions and clothing ; and now, when some 
of them have a little more than they can eat up in a day, they wish to be 
released from the authority of their benefactors, and without paying, if they 
could : a sign of gross ingratitude. 

" Hitherto, the country has been nothing but expense to the company ; and 
now, when it can provide for itself and yield for the fiitirre some profit to the 
company, these people are not willing to piay the tenth which they are bound 

16 



122 NOTES. 

honestly to pay when called upon after the expiration of the ten years, pursuant 
to the exemptions. 

" Upon the second point, they say that provision should be made for ecclesi- 
astical and municipal property, church services, an orphan asylum, and an alms- 
house. If they are such philanthropists as they appear, let them lead the "way 
in generous contributions for such laudable objects, and not complain when the 
directors have endeavored to make collections for the church and school. What 
complaints would have been made if the directors had undertaken to make 
collections for an almshouse and an orphan asylum ! The service of the church 
will not be suspended, although Dominie Johannes Backerus has returned, who 
has been there more than twenty-seven months. His jjlace is supplied by a 
learned and godly minister, who has no interpreter when he defends the 
Reformed Religion against any minister of our neighbors, the English 
Brownists.* 

" The foregoing are the points which require any answer. We will only add 
some deserii;)tion of the persons who have signed the remonstrance, and who are 
the following: 

" Adrian van der Donk has been about eight years in New Netherland. He 
went there in the service of the projM'ietors of the colony of Renselaersw.yek, as 
an officer, but did not long continue such, though he lived in that colony till 
1646. 

" Arnoldus van Hardenburgh accompanied Hay Jansen to New Netherland, 
in the year 1644, with a cargo for his brother. He has never, to our knowl- 
edge, suffered any loss or damage in New Netherland, but has known how to 
charge the commonalty well for his goods. 

" Augustyn Seermans went by the authority of Eukhuizen,-]' being then, as 
he still is, the agent of Gabrie, in trading business. 

" Jacob van C'ouwen/wvcn went to the country with his father in boyhood, 
was taken by Wouter van Twiller into the service of the company as an assist- 
ant, and afterwards became' a tobacco planter. Tlie comjiany has aided him 
with necessaries, as it is to be seen by the books, but they have been paid for. 

" Olof StevCHsen, brother-in-law of Govert Loockraans, went out in the year 
163'7, in the ship Herring, as a soldier, in the service of the company. He was 
promoted by Director Kieft, and finally made commissary of the shop. He has 
profited in the service of the company, and has endeavored to give his bene- 
factor the world's pay, that is, to recompense good with evil. He signed imder 
protest, saying that he was compelled to sign, which can be understood two 
ways, one that he had been compelled to subscribe to the truth, the other that 



* Tli6 Eev. Johannes Megapolensis is here referred to. 

t A city in tlic ïfortb Quarter, whicb was one of the Chambers or departments of the West 
India Company. 



NOTES. 123 

he had been eoustrained by force to do it. If he moans the latter, it must bo 
proven. 

" Mkliael Jansen -went to New Nethorlaud as a former's man, in the cmpkiy 
of the proprietors of Eenselaerswyck. He made his fortune in the colony in a 
few yeai's, but not being able to agree with the officers, finally came to live 
upon the island Manhatans. He would have come here Mmself, but the accounts 
between him and the colony not being settled, in which the proprietors did not 
consider themselves indebted as he claimed, Jan Evertsen came over in his 
stead. 

" Thomas Hall went to the South River in 1636, in the employ of Mr. 
Holmes, an Englishman, who intended to take Fort Nassau, and rob tis of the 
South River. This Thomas HaU ran away from his master, came to the Man- 
hatans, and hired himself as a farmer's man to Jacob van Curlur. Being a free- 
man, he has made a tobacco plantation upon the land of that noted individual. 
Wouter van Twyler. Thomas Hall dwells at present upon a small bowery 
belonging to the Honorable Company. 

" Elbert Elhertsen went to the country as a fai'mer's boy, at about ten or 
eleven years of age, in the service of Wouter van Twyler, and has never had 
any land of his own. About three years ago, he married the widow of Gerret 
Wolphertsen (brother of the before-mentioned Jacob van Couwenlioven), and 
from that time to this has been indebted to the company, and would be very 
glad to get rid of paying. 

" Govcri Loochnans, brother-in-law of Jacob van Couwenhoven, went to New 
Netherland in the yacht St. Martin, in the year 1633, as a cook's mate, and was 
taken by Wouter van Twyler into the service of the company, in which service 
he profited somewhat. He became a freeman, and finally took charge of the 
trading business for Gilles Verbruggen and his company. This Looekmans 
owes gratitude to the company, nest to God, for his elevation, and ought not 
advise its removal from the country. 

" Hcndrich Kip is a tailor, and has never suffered any loss in New Nether- 
land, to our knowledge. 

" Jan Evertsen-bout, formerly an officer of the company, came the last time 
in the year 1634, with the ship Eendracht (Union), in the service of the Honor- 
able Michiel Paauw, and lived in Pavonia until the year 1643, and prospered 
moderately. As the Honorable Company pm-chased the property of the Heer 
Paauw, the said Jan Evertsen, having the property, succeeded well in the service 
of the company ; but as his house and barn at Pavonia were burnt down in the 
war, he appeared to take that as a cause for complaint. It is here to be 
remarked, that the Honorable Company paid 26,000 guildei-s for the colony of 
the Heer Paauw. The said Jan Evertsen built his house upon the land, and had 
given nothing for his farm, which yielded good wheat. Long afterwards his 
house was bm'nt. The land, and a poor, unfinished house, with a few cattle, he 
has sold to Michiel Jansen for eight thousand guilders. 



124 NOTES. 

" In fine, these people, to give tlieii" doings a gloss, say that they are boixnd 
by conscience and compelled by reason ; but if that were the case, they would 
not assail their benefactors, the company and others, and endeavor to deprive 
them of this noble country, by advising their removal, now that it begins to be 
like something, and may hereafter be of some advantage to the company, and 
now that many of the inhabitants are themselves in a better condition than 
ever ; endeavors caused, apparently, by the ambition of many, &e. 

"At the Hague, 2Sth November, 1650." 



|r0(ili-jllii)iff 



TO THE 



United Netlierland 
PROVINCES. 



Gelreland. 

Holland. 

Zeeland. 

Utrecht. 

Vriesland. 

Over-Yssel. 

Groeningen. 



tvttsts ntemoties 



By I. A. G. W. C. 



Antwer]). 



Printed by Francis Yan Duynen, Bookseller next to 
the Exchange in Erasmus 1649. 



Isaiah: I., 12, 13, 14-, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, Ac. 

12. When ye come to appear before me, wlio hath required this at your 
hand, to tread my eourts ? 

13. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me ; the 
new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; it is 
iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 

14. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth : they are 
a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them. 

15. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you : 
yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of 
blood. 

16. Wash j'ou, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from 
before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; 

1*7. Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the 
fatherless, plead for the widow. 

18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wliite as snow ; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool. 

19. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land ; 

20. But if 3'e- refxise and rebel, j'e shall be devoured with the sword : for 
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 



BPiOAD ADYICE, 



OR 



DIALOGUE ABOUT THE TRADE OF THE 
WEST INDIA COMPANY, ETC. 



BETWEEN 



A. — Alfonso, a Portuguese Soldier^ serving the Com- 
pany in JBrazil. 
B. — Bouwen Ketnssen, Skipper. 
C. — Chaeles, a Student from Stoeden. 
D. — DoMESTGO, a Spanish JBarher. 
E. — Stephen de Chefne, a French Merchant. 
F. — Faust, a Neapolitan. 
Q. — GovEKT, a poor English Nobleman. 
H. — Hans Cheistophee, a High-Dutch Gentleman. 
Z. — 'JuD. Hans van Schoonen, Boatswain. 

K. KONEAD POPOLSKI. 



B. Well, comrades, tliougli I am tlie last to come 
aboard, I am bold to be tlie first to ask bow will we 
pass away tbe time on tbe way, wbile we are thus in a 
ship ? is it by playing cards ? 

A. Although I speak bad Dutch, yet, as we are 
strangers, let us hear the news from one another. 

17 



128 BROAD ADVICE. 

C. There I am also elogieert. Is that good Hol- 
laudish, shipmate? 

D. That does very well. Yo non puedo mais^ ha, 
Im, lie ! 

E. Mon Dieu ! Here people are brought together 
to talk. We shall interpret each other. 

F. Bon jorno Skjnoresi, par il amor di dios, that 
will be a ridiculous talk. 

G. Wait a little. I will come by and by, as soon* 
as my knapsack is off. 

H. Why the devil don't these ragamuffins let me 
rest? 

J. I have conversed with Hollanders so long, that 
they will talk much before it will trouble me. 

K. It is good to drive away melancholy. 

B. It cannot fail of our having some news, when 
we come together from such foreign quarters. But 
you, Senor Alfonso, what brings you from Brazil? 
Who has advised you so foolishly, that you should 
abandon your own country, which was so victorious, 
and enter our service ? 

A. Shall I tell some news first? May I speak 
freely the truth ? 

All. Yes! Yes! 

B. Why not? 

A. Well, I will. You Hollanders, do you not 
reproach our nation that they are traitors and rebels ? 

B. Yes ; it is not otherwise, according to what is 
made known to me, and as it appears from this treach- 
erous revolt. 

A. I do not take that to myself, for I am yet a 



BROAD ADVICE. 129 

servant of the Company. I will tlierefore sjDeak tlie 
more freely of it. 

B. Were it otherwise, speak freely, else we cannot 
comprehend. 

A. All the mischief happens to you from your 
own nation, who have brought you into this labyrinth. 
For who has sold Cape St. Augustine? Was not 
Hoogstraten himself a Hollander? And the captain 
of the horse. Ley, Captain Hicq. and his brother, with 
Alberto Giraldo Wedda? Who have not regarded 
the advices of the revolt ? Are they not the Supreme 
Council itself? Who have administered justice badly 
in Brazil? Are they not your OAvn Council? Who 
have given so much credit, and handed over all the 
means to the Signors and those who, by the contracts, 
have drawn for the four million of guilders in money 
and effects, besides the eight millions of guilders which 
the inhabitants of Brazil were indebted to the Com- 
pany, whereby they have hitherto carried on the war 
against the Company ? Are they not your own Coun- 
cil? Who are they whom the High Council have 
suffered to go unpunished, after they were convicted 
of robberies, murders, and acts of treason ? Are they 
not here in this country those who, directly or indi- 
rectly, obstruct the laws, or who, on the other hand, 
have not as yet punished these villains as they should 
have done ? 

Who are they who promised to maintain the people 

who have settled in Brazil under the decree of the year 

1630, and do not now aid them as they should do ; or, 

on the other hand, do not terminate their misery ? 

17 



130 BROAD ADVICE. 

Who, whenever succor is devised, know how so to 
arrange the necessities, that no benefit can he derived 
from it ? . 

Who are they who, when only the smallest number 
of troops in Brazil went out to reconnoitre, gave intel- 
ligence of it to the enemy, at what they were designed, 
what would be the expense, and how strong they were ? 
As in the last attack on the Cararapes, a certain ensign 
having hid himself and his company of nineteen men 
in a morass, applied to the Supreme Council for assist- 
ance, in order that he and his company might be saved, 
and no sooner was the apiplication made at the Eecilf, 
than intelligence of it was sent from the Reciif to the 
enemy. As to which, when afterwards the ensign came 
to the Eeciff and related circumstantially to the Su- 
preme Council what had passed, it has been told to us 
for the truth, that the President said, " One of us four, 
then, must be a villain ; for the letter of the ensign was 
communicated only to the four members of the Supreme 
Council." That person could not, indeed, have been a 
Portuguese, but of necessity must have been a Nether- 
lander. 

Further, who has so annoyed the inhabitants at 
Maranhon, that they have been compelled to protect 
themselves by desperate means? Was it not your 
director, Peter Jansen Bas, the Maranhon murderer, 
who put twenty-four Portuguese in a boat, and, through 
his cousin and secretary, ISTegentoon, set them adrift in 
the country of the Brazilians at Commenecij, where 
they were all cruelly murdered by the Brazilians, ex- 
cept one man who was saved ? 



BROAD ADVICE. 131 

Finally, wlio has so badly managed at Angola that 
the whole country was suddenly surrendered? Are 
they not the Netherland managers who were entrusted 
with the command ? 

Who has sold St. Thomas ? Was it not your own 
commander? And yet they will cry out that our 
nation are the traitors, and charge them with all the 
mischief. What think you, friends, had Master Bouwen 
no reason to ask me what had caused me to forsake the 
victorious side of the Portuguese in Brazil ? Had I 
understood the government of the Company as Avell 
before as I did afterwards, I should have Avell consid- 
ered the matter four times. 

E. Our nation, indeed, do not say much good of 
the Hollanders on this same matter and other bygone 
histories. Truly, the Rochellois ascribe all their trouble 
to the Hollanders, and principally to the deceased Ad- 
miral, Heer van Haultain. But it seems that God has 
hitherto listened to them who have now after a long 
time begun to open their eyes. 

J. Well, Mons. Estienne, you have learned to talk 
HoUandish very quickly. 

B. While you people are holding conversation, I 
am thinking what I, in return for this Portuguese dish, 
may rub in his beard. I certainly cannot swallow it, 
though what he says is true, when he hatchels our 
nation so. But, nevertheless, Senor Alfonso, I ask you, 
as Hoogstraten has sold the Cape, to whom has he sold 
■ it ? Is it not to the Portuguese, and especially to those 
of Bahia ? Who has given him the charge of Coronel ? 
Is it not the Governor of Bahia ? Who has given the 



132 BROAD ADVICE. 

orders to tTie relDellioiis cliiefs ? Whence are tlie salaries 
drawn ? In whose name are the forts demanded ? Are 
they not all in the name and in behalf of Don John 
the Fourth, King of Portugal ? Who have planned, pro- 
moted, set to work, and, from time to time, supported 
this revolt ? Are they not all frOm Bahia, and hence 
from all Portugal, and almost all the Portuguese who 
dwell in Netherland Brazil, a few of that nation ex- 
cepted ? The banners from the Cape, from Zerinhaein, 
from Porto Calvo, from Rio St. Francisco, and those 
which were taken at the mill of Tourlon and at the 
Cararapes in the three battles, are they not hung up in 
Bahia in triumph ? And so much as relates to those 
fraudulent contracts which you enlarge upon so, have 
not the Portuguese senors and the contractors brought 
them about by their rascally presents ? We know well 
what such presents can accomplish towards the injury 
of a whole republic, much more of so innocent a Com- 
pany, whose regents have always so attended to their 
particular profit that generally the community have 
suffered damage thereby. 

Who knows what is going on, even at this day, 
here in Holland ? What does the Portuguese ambas- 
sador here any longer, except, as a spy, to feel the 
pulse of one and another ? And in the meanwhile so 
hinder what would be advantageously done for Brazil 
and other places, as either to prevent it entirely, or, at 
least, to prevent it from being done in time ; or, if it 
be timely done, it so happens that it is known in Port- 
ugal and obviated before it is undertaken here. And 
though Hooghstraten and Champfleury, with more like 



BROAD ADVICE. 133 

them, have forgotten tlieir Fatlierlaud, tlieir own souls, 
and salvation, besides their honor and oaths, they are 
bribed thereto like Judases by the Portuguese. So 
that in this there is a greater fault in your nation than 
in ours, for what is done by ours is done by seduction, 
but that which is done by yours is done by design, in 
order to rob, steal, murder, and commit every other 
crime which can be thought of, and that almost in cold 
blood. 

Besides, other correspondence was held at the 
Reciff, was it not with the Portuguese ? Is that 
treasonable ? How can your nation be excused of this, 
who built it up ? And, if the seller of St. Thomas was a 
Netherlander (which I do not know), who was the 
buyer ? Were they not Portuguese, yea, most all the 
Portuguese who live there, from the least to the great- 
est inclusive ? So that I can, against one villain from 
our nation, set off a dozen, yea, a hundred or more, 
from your nation. But every one may carry his own 
burdens and villainies until he chokes under them, 
before I shall ever help him. 

H. In our country there was formerly a pious 
citizen, of whom a dame complained that she had let 
him treat her improperly ; and when the citizen said 
to the court that he had had such intercourse with 
her, a heavy fine was imposed upon both of them. So 
will it be done with these, for they are both equally 
guilty, and they will equally be taxed and shorn. 

A. As to what you, Mr. Bouwen, say of Portu- 
guese robbery, thievery, and murdering, I will set off 



134- BROAD ADVICE. 

against them tlie wicked murder of tweuty-four Portu- 
guese, wlio, sent from the Maranhan, landed at Com- 
massy, and were killed hj the Brazilians or Calaocolos. 
Also, the horrible massacre at Conhau, for what can 
be imagined more cruel than that they should call the 
inhabitants together for the purpose of proposing some- 
thing to them, and when they are assembled fall upon 
them, when they had no weapons at all with them, and 
massacre them ! 

But your godless Netherlanders have therein done 
the wickedest that could be devised. Tell me once, is 
it not true that in Rio Grande a public resolution was 
taken by the heads of the government, signed by the 
Schout, Schepens, and the Council of War, to massacre 
twelve prisoners and the sixty inhabitants, who, being 
unarmed, could do no harm? If this were deemed 
cruel by your nation, why are they not punished who 
did it ? Why do they suffer no punishment who have 
connived at it, and have failed to be punished? It 
happened in this massacre that a certain little girl, from 
eight to ten years of age, was not willing to be separ- 
ated from her father, who was brought out to be mas- 
sacred, and when her father was killed, went and sat 
upon his dead body, crying " O ! matta mi tambem "— 
O ! hill me also with my fatJier^ — which did not happen 
according to her wish; but, nevertheless, that lamb 
was robbed of all her clothing, in the same manner as 
after that all the widows and orphans who were left 
by those who were killed were despoiled, and as after- 
wards the Portuguese who revolted' were sent away. 



BROAD ADVICE. 135 

Can you Hollanders digest all tliis in youi' con- 
sciences, without providing for some mode of justice 
therefor ? Or is your justice tied ? 

B. This man contends like an enemy for his side ; 
should he with better heart serve on ours, when he has 
so many reasons to the contrary? It was cruel. I 
know not what I shall say of that business. The truth 
lies in the grave. But do you know, Alfonso, that your 
countrymen are not as they ought to be where they 
can play the master ; that they hung up by the legs 
the youth at Rio Grande, and on occasion shot them ; 
that the prisoners were led out by pairs, and murdered 
in cold blood ; that they cut off the private parts of 
some and stuck them in their mouths, and left them 
lying a vile spectacle. Yes, they chopped off the hands 
of some, and the Portuguese cavaliers presented them 
to their mistresses, saying, " See what white hands these 
dogs have." I would have a year's task, were I to relate 
all the cruelties which they have perpetrated. Some 
were found dead with thirty, twenty, and ten wounds, 
more or less ; and how can they not be more mad at 
us, than they had been before this at their own Portu- 
guese for debts only. For you know, indeed, that 
Diego da Eaujo let strips be cut out of the body of his 
laborador da farinlia^ and let him, thus cut, be bitten 
by the mosquitoes and gnats for a whole day, and after 
that sprinkled him with lemons and Brazil pepper. 
Also Eoderigo de Barros sawed a leg off of his slaves 
for the least fault that can be mentioned. * * * 
What would theythen not do to us, whom they regard 
as open enemies ? 

A. What I could say against your people here is 



136 BROAD ADVICE. 

unspeakable. Has not Lybargen suspended persons 
by tie feet, and burned tlieir feet witli liot irons, so tbat 
tliey liave been compelled to go all their lives upon 
crutcbes ? And was be not helped away to Brazil by 
Mr. Carpentier and Secretary Jacob Hamel, when these 
matters were discovered, and that he must suffer there- 
for, because he had married the daughter of the Advo- 
cate Hamel, and niece of the Supreme Councilor 
Hamel, who concerned themselves about it so that no 
disgrace might fall upon their family, as once happened 
at the Hague to another fine brother of their name and 
kin, and as was told to us for the truth in Brazil. 
Something of this is to be seen in the public regis- 
ters. 

That must not appear so strange to you, as it 
appears to be customary here for notorious people to 
be admitted into public office. How many have there 
been in Brazil, whom we have known in the principal 
offices, who were bankrupts of low origin and full of 
all kinds of vices ? Are there not persons employed 
in the courts of justice who have committed murder 
even while they were officers of justice, namely, Vol- 
bergen, Delinge, and Peter Jansen Bas, who sent . 
twenty-five Portuguese from the Maranhan, who, inno- 
cent, were murdered at Commassy? As I hear, these 
men will obtain in this country offices in the public 
mint or elsewhere. And Deliüge, who has committed 
such a public murder at Parayba on the person of 
Hans Styger, whom he killed from behind, as he stood 
making water. And what was the «political councilor, 
Van der Voorde ? Was he not the betrayer of Porto 
Calvo, although it miscarried ? 



BROAD ADVICK. 137 

> And tlie traitor Champileury, wlio afterwards sold 
Porto Calvo, was he not coming to Holland to be 
provided witli a company ? "What advantage has 
Torquinus, at present, who compelled my brother-in-law, 
Francisco Carneiro, in Pojouca, to give so many cases 
of sugar, who was thereby excused for some time 
from making payment to the Company ? Does 
he not say that he had been made, by their High 
Mightinesses, fiscal over the States soldiers in Brazil, 
and, by his Highness, receiver of the three per cents. 
This man's corruption may be seen in the secret 
notules, in what the advocate-fiscal has caused to be 
charged on the 28th of August, 1643, against him ; and 
it will be found that this man as well becomes such an 
administration as a pickpocket a silver-cloth doublet. 

F. Let us stop here a spell. Are you able to speak 
here so freely all those things of which you have made 
mention ? Friends, I will have no part in M^hat is said. 
I am a stranger in the country, and know not its cus- 
toms. I will rather sleep. 

G. I never heard such talk. The world is turned ; 
the boy is master. Although I speak crooked Dutch, 
I can understand well. It is now two years since two 
brave citizens, shipwrecked in the Channel, passed 
through England, who came fi'om New Netherland, 
and I have not in all my life heard the like as these 
men told us of the directors whom they have there. 

B. Well, I have just come from thence, and have 
brought over a number of people in my ship who will 
complain of the present directors and some of the 
government. 

18 ■ 



138 BROAD ADVICE. 

K. Well, let us drive away iuelauclioly. It is a 
hard word tliat cannot be spoken, and an impossible 
deed wliicb cannot be done. Schipper, proceed, what 
kind of a country is New Netherland ? 

B. New Netherland is one of the finest countries 
which lie under the sun, with all kinds of fruits, vege- 
tables, and trees ; several fine rivers ; fish are caught 
there in abundance in every diversion, to salt, to dry, 
to fry, to boil, but principally to eat and to sell. There 
are also already many tame cattle, and deer more than 
the inhabitants are able to kill. In short, there is every 
thing there in sufiiciency. Birds, wild and tame, to 
overflowing. The wine-grape grows wild ; onions also 
grow wild ; chestnuts, mulberries, plums, medlars, wild 
cherries, curi'ants, gooseberries, hazel nuts, small apples, 
strawberiies, kraakberries, blueberries, earthnuts, arti- 
chokes in the ground, and more, similar to them, all 
grow wild. Besides, all that we have in Europe will 
grow there freely. 

F. What latitude have you there. Master? 
B. That's a seaman's question; — 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 
degrees along the coast. 

F. That's a good climate, I believe you say, also. 
But what business is there ? 

B. Ho, ho, wish you so ? I was forbidden by my 
master to tell that. You are also a merchant to make 
such an inquiry. I would not mention it, unless I knew 
that you intended to send cargoes there and obtain 
returns, then would I make a good talk about it with 
Senor. But we are now away from our subject. 



BROAD ADVICE. 139 

F. Well, what subject, to be lianled up by one 
and another, by the tail ? 

B. Yes ; were it fishing, I would haul it up by the 
head; but as their doings stink too much, I can take 
hold of no other end. 

F. I perceive that you are one of the sea-jokers. 
What for governors have you there, and what are they 
doing ? I perceive that you wish to speak of them. 

B. First we had, before this present time, one 
William Kieft, born in Amsterdam, brought up from 
his youth as a merchant, who, having attended to his 
own and his master's business a long time at Eochelle, 
or neglected it, failed. Whereupon, his portrait, ac- 
cording to the custom there, was fastened upon the 
gallows, as several witnesses, still living, who have seen 
it with their own eyes, can testify. Being a long time 
out of business, this man was em2:)loyed to redeem some 
captive Christians in Turkey. The money was entrusted 
to this bankrupt ; and he went and released some, for 
whom the least was to be paid ; but others, whose 
friends had contributed the most money, he let stay 
there, for whom their parents and friends were com- 
pelled once more to furnish money. This fine brother 
was appointed by the managers director over the in- 
habitants and trade of New Netherland, in the year 
1G3Y. 

PI. That is truly trusting the cheese to the cat. 

B. The gentleman may well say that ; but the 
bewinthebbers (managers) being for the most part 
merchants, knew how to strike a blow whei'e it was 
not closely to be looked into. 



140 BROAD ADVICE. 

F. I can imagine that, if you will say that mer- 
chants are not adapted to government. Tell that once 
at Amsterdam on the Exchange. 

B. That is not exactly my meaning, for I know 
well that they understand how to govern by sea ac- 
cording to their wishes ; why should they not he able 
to do so also on land ? 

H. Can there be traced out on the sea, where the 
ships sail, with all their courses ? 

All. Ha, ha, ha ! 

B. Why do you laugh so ? Don't you know for 
what purpose this gentleman asks that ? He will then 
say, that the ways of merchants, their orders, charter 
parties, monopolies, contrabands, and what more similar 
matters there are on the deep, unfathomable sea, can- 
not be traced out as easily as one can govern on land. 
So that if any profligate merchants are entrusted with 
the government of a country, the scepter of power can- 
not be wielded blamelessly, as Brazil, Angola, St. 
Thomas, and Guinea, have all for some years experi- 
enced. But the worst is, that as soon as any profit is 
to be derived, the largest merchants envy the smaller, 
not being willing for any others to enjoy it with them; 
and especially, whenever they can, use the power of 
government, under au}^ pretense, so that all the fat 
may drip into the kettle of some few of them : what 
schemes do they then contrive? And whenever it 
serves their purpose to fail, no man would believe how 
they then, man and horse, know how to invent and 
spread a good report around, and then have another, 
who is the least a losei', or whom they most favor, dex- 



BROAD ADVICE. 141 

tei'ously to cover up tlieir bad doings, like as the foxes 
at the North let themselves fall in the water in order 
not to be any longer bitten by the fleas ; or to screen 
all manner of roguery, so that the credit of their goods 
and fortune sustain no injury, as will hereafter clearly 
be shown. They are the shrewdest merchants who 
best know how to avoid their losses, if not by cheating 
or smartness, then by force. 

F. You know well that you must live by the mer- 
chants. Skipper ; how prate you, then, thus of the 
merchants ? 

B. The merchants cannot do without us ; and the 
devil's mate might serve the merchants. If one could 
not have justice against their indiscreet courses, he 
would be worse than a slave. 

F. You abandoned your former discourse about 
your Dii'ector Kieft. 

B. That happened so between us both, in a meas- 
ure, after it was proper in the discourse. The mer- 
chants are very good in the government when they 
are selected; but then they must be of acute under- 
standing, and have honest guardians besides to overlook 
them, and by a proper discretion to enlarge and curtail 
their power as may be convenient. 

Kieft thus being made director, had now a path 
wherein, with good appearance and without being sub- 
ject to much being said, he could have acquired honor 
and distinction. And it went along so for a long time, 
until some of the mayors in the Fatherland, that is, 
managers, envying the colonies and their founders that 



142 BROAI) ADVICE. 

tliey prospered any, wrote to liim that, in order to take 
some of their profits from them, he should institute 
suits against them, and reckon half a fault for a whole 
one. 

J. Well, upon my soul, that was enough to set 
the whole country in an uproar. Who durst write 
that ? 

B. If it were material, I could name man and 
horse (my author) ; but that is not necessary. 

C. We must drive this thick nail in the beam and 
stop that floodgate, for it is all too bad. It pipes of 
the flutes, for there is already so much said under the 
rose ; we should, without much doubt, if it were true 
that what you say was written there, have heard long- 
ago who had dared sign such letters, without its being 
brought out so. SkipjDer, those fellows knew well if 
that came out that they would be dead men, if justice 
were done them. I therefore consider that writing a 
fable. 

B. I tell you, in truth, it is no fable ; and I there- 
fore repeat, that I am able to name the author in one 
and the same breath. 

H. Why, was it not said by your ancestors, that 
one may freely say what is true ? It fails me to sus- 
pect who they are. 

B. As you so strongly insist upon it, I will do it; 
though, as you do not know the person, I otherwise 
deem it unnecessary. Isaac van Beeck, Mr. Parkins, 
and Edward Man wrote them, as Commissaries of 
New Netherlaud. 



BEOAD xVDVICE. 143 

G. The last two, wliom Mister Bouwen nientioas, 
are the most honest men in the world, as I know. 

B. In this matter, however, they were not honest 
people. 

A. Were the second one, whom you have named, 
in Brazil, the soldiers would quickly make way with 
him. 

D. Why? 

A. It was told us in Brazil, that he, being a com- 
missary in the year 164Y to send arms to Brazil, ob- 
served such care thereof, that when they used them, 
both before the enemy and in exercise, they burst 
from ten to twenty at a time, about the heads of the 
soldiers. 

E. Was there no complaint of this in Holland ? 

A. Would not Manager Yan Els and another cap- 
tain have both told us, that before they went to sea, 
all the muskets which were already burst were brought 
to his Highness ? 

C. If any one dared to manage so in our country, 
it would cost him his life. 

J. Our king would consider it treason. 

E. It is not to be interpreted otherwise, disguise 
it as you may. 

Gr. The devil take the rogues, if that be true. 

H. That is coarsely spun. I do not sell my skin 
to the Hollanders if they cheat so. These fellows did 
not play such tricks a second time ! 

A. I have seen the muskets bursted, not once, but 
several times. As to the rest, one may guess from this 
whether they burst. 



144 BROAD ADVICE. 

E. But Van Beeck, after I knew lilm, was cer- 
tainly a pious man. He laad before this sat in the 
Consistory at Amsterdam, and may still be in it. 

B. He is one of the Heaven-thieves, who, under 
the cloak of piety, are worse than poison. He knew 
of the murder and of Kieft's proceedings, who so 
blinded him and others, that no -wickedness of Kieft 
could be so great but it was excused by him and those 
like him. Kieft, then, being thus written to by those 
who had command over him, to spring upon those who 
were under his command, for half as for whole offenses, 
was eager now the more to pursue the course ; but, in 
the meanwhile, he was so careless in regard to his 
masters, that he let ten or twelve persons of the com- 
monalty see the letters, in order to frighten them there- 
with, for otherwise no one would have known of 
them. 

H. When such a rascal or bankrupt has gone so 
far, then must it be that another sustains him. That I 
understand very well. 

E. It is not clear that it so happens. These people 
forget our French proverb — 

Main droit et bouclie 

Peut aller par tout le monde. 



( monde, 
e. ^ 



A civil mouth and spotless hand 
Can travel over every land. 



What did this Director Kieft do further ? I had for- 
merly seen his portrait on the gallows at Rochelle, so 
I guess not much property followed him here. 

B. Passing by divers trifling abuses, I proceed to 
the peculations which tend to the ruin of the whole 



BROAD ADVICE. 145 

country. Be it known, then, tliat lie had a long time 
nourished in his own bosom the design of making war 
upon the Indians of New Netherland, because they had 
refused him certain contributions, which they had done 
for reasons, saying that they did not consider them- 
selves bound to contribute, to the director or the 
Netherlanders : 

1. Not for the purpose of maintaining the soldiers, 
as they did them no service when they were engaged 
in war with other" tribes ; that they then crept together 
like cats upon a piece of cloth, and could be killed a 
thousand times before any tidings could come to the 
fort, which was situated far from them, much less could 
they be rescued by the soldiers, or seconded in time by 
them. 

2. Further, that they had allowed our countrymen 
to take possession of the country peaceably ; that they 
had never demanded any thing for it ; and that we 
were indebted to them for that reason, and not they 
to us. 

3. Item, that when our people, having lost a certain 
ship there, had built another new ship, they had assisted 
our people with provisions and all kinds of necessaries, 
and had taken care of them for two winters, until the 
ship was finished, for which we were indebted to them, 
and not they to us. 

4. Wherefore, they asked, for what reason should 
they give our people maize for nothing, when they paid 
for every thing which they came to buy of us, as much 
as we asked ? 

6. We have, said they, given you the land where 
19 



146 BKOAD ADVICE. 

you live, but we remain masters of that wMcIl we 
retain for ourselves. 

Have we not, then, Swannekens, (that is, Dutch, or 
Hollanders), when you first came here, and had no 
mochols (that is to say, ships), furnished you victuals 
for two winters through, when, without that, you must 
have perished with hunger ? 

The delegates from all the Indian tribes, namely, 
the Earitans — whose chief they called Oringkes, after 
Orange, — the Hacquinsacks, the Wappenas, the High- 
landers, Wicquasgecks, Eeckewacki, Mereckewacks, 
Tappanders, Massapeins, Zinceuw, and others, had as 
many sticks as they had points to debate, which they 
laid down there one by one. Director Kieft seeing 
himself deprived, by so many reasons, of the contribu- 
tions for which he was very greedy, and that it was 
disgracing him with our people, carefully meditated by 
what means he might satisfy his insatiable avarice. 

E. Well, Skipper, how did that end? 

B. At this time, anno 1643, about Shrovetide, 
these Indians were surprised by some other tribes 
(who were too strong for them) and compelled to 
retreat. They came to shelter themselves amongst us, 
not thinking that they had any treachery to expect 
from us. About this same time, there was a shroving 
feast at the house of Jan Janssen Damen, at which the 
director, in a significant toast, made known his medi- 
tated design against the Indians to three inconsiderate 
boors, to wit, Maryn Adrigensz, Jan Jansz Damen, and 
Abraham Plancq, who presented to him a petition pre- 
pared by Secretary Tienhoven, asking, inasmuch as the 



BROAD ADVICE. 147 

Indians befoi'e that time had shot a certain sei'vant of 
Mr. Van Nederhost, and no reparation or punishment 
had been made for the act, that he would now avenge 
it, in order to maintain the reputation of our nation. 

K. Was that so ? 

B. I will tell you. Sir. A certain Hacquinsack 
Indian chief, who was not considered very sensible by 
the Indians themselves, was made drunk with brandy 
by our people, and being asked whether he in such 
condition could use his bow and arrow, in reply bent 
his bow upon a certain man, named Gerrit Jansz, a 
servant of the late Mr. Van Nederhorst, and shot him 
dead, and then asked whether he was able. Several 
Indians were killed in revenge for this man, and peace 
was made with the Indians. So that at the date when 
the director ordered the massacre, the very tribe 
which had killed the servant of the late Mr. Van 
Nederhorst, had been staying some weeks among the 
Dutch, and were supplied by the director with every- 
thing necessary. Thus the pretext was entirely false. 

K. Was it, then, in one man's power to undertake 
for that reason war or murder ? 

B. That it might have some plausibility, a petition 
for it was presented ; whereupon a letter was written 
on the 25th of February, 1643, to the effect that Maryn 
Adrisensen was authorized, at his request, to perform 
an exploit with his company, against the Indians living 
behind Curler's plantation, and to treat them as he 
found convenient, but according to time and circum- 
stances. 

E. Who ever gave such a letter ? Who was the 
writer of it ? 



148 BROAD ADVICE. 

B. Secretary Cornelis van Tienhoven, who has 
now come home in order to make a report concerning 
New Netherland. He also had prepared the petition. 

C. A child would have seen that this was a mere 
sham. This secretary deserved to be torn to pieces by 
four horses, as traitors are ; and these three boors had, 
according to law, forfeited their lives. Were the 
people who were settled in the country warned to be 
on their guard, that no injury might befal them by 
resistance or assistance ? 

B. Nobody in the world, except the three hereto- 
fore named. The people settled in the country were 
not once thought of. The secretary himself went 
where the Indians were, the day before, to spy them 
out ; and if the jieople of the farm lands had known 
that such was the intention, and there had been reason 
for it, not one of all the Indians would have escaped ; 
or if there had been no reason for it, as there was not, 
the director could not have perpetrated such a murder, 
though he had had ten such treacherous secretaries. 

J. As well as I can see into the business, the secre- 
tary was the principal cause of the consequences. But 
how did they do then ? 

B. Between the 25th and 26th of February, 1643, 
at night, over eighty Indians were massacred at Pavo- 
nia by eighty soldiers, where young children were 
snatched from their mothers' breasts, and cut to pieces 
in sight of the parents, and the pieces thrown into the 
fire and into the water ; other sucklings were bound to 
wooden boards, and cut, stuck, or bored through, and 
miserably massacred, so that a heart of stone would 



BROAD ADVICE. 149 

have been softened. Some were thrown into the river, 
and when the fathers and mothers endeavored to res- 
cue them, the soldiers would not let them come ashore 
again, but caused both old and young to be drowned. 
Children, five or six years old, and also some old, 
decrepid people, as many of them as had escaped this 
fury and secreted themselves in the bushes and reeds, 
when they came forth in the morning to beg a piece of 
bread and to warm themselves against the cold, were 
murdered in cold blood, and pushed into the water or 
into the fire. Some came running past our people liv- 
ing on the farms, with their hands cut off; others had 
their legs cut ofi: Some carried their bowels in their 
arms ; others had such horrible cuts, hacks, and 
wounds, that the like can never have happened else- 
where. And these poor people, and also many of our 
nation, did not know any better than that other In- 
dians, the Maquas, had surprised them. After this 
exploit, the soldiers were recompensed for their serv- 
ices, and thanked by Director Kieft, by shaking of 
hands and congratulations. 

At another place, at Coder's Hook, near Corler's 
plantation, on the same night, forty Indians were sur- 
prised in their sleep in the same manner, and massa- 
cred in the same way. 

D. Has the Duke of Alba done more evil in the 
Netherlands ? 

F. Certainly you have such Netherland governors 
or directors, as the Duke of Alba might yield in repu- 
tation to them. 

B. Yes, Sir. It is a disgrace to our nation, and it 



150 BROAD ADVICE. 

beliooved me to have kept it secret, if keeping it secret 
would have remedied it. But tliey have been written 
to there concerning it ; yet it not only has not been 
remedied, but it has gone on worse, as you will hear 
presently. 

H. Did the Indians let this go so ? 

B. Oh no, Sir. As soon as they were aware that 
the Swannekens had treated them so, they killed all 
the men on the farm lands whom they could surprise ; 
but, as to the women and children, we have never 
heard that they did them any harm. Besides, they 
burned all the houses, farms, barns, stacks of grain, and 
destroyed every thing that they could come at, so that 
they began an open and destructive war. 

C— 

Quiequid delirant reges pleetuntur Aehivi 

What kings and princes madly say, 
Tliat must their suffering subjects paj'. 

B. I have been told for a truth that a certain 
skij)per, named Isaac Abrahamsen, having saved a little 
boy in a sail-boat and hidden him under the sail, in 
order to present him to one Cornells Melyn, and the 
child having, through cold and hunger, made himself 
heard by the soldiers, eighteen German tigers dragged 
him from under the sail in spite of the skipper, who 
could not, alone, save him against eighteen, cut him in 
two, and threw the pieces overboard. 

F. But how did it please the inhabitants ? 

B. They were not only greatly dissatisfied, but 
they took notes of what passed from time to time ; for 
those on the farm lands were all ruined, and there was 
little provision and little strength in the fort. These 



BROAD ADVICE. 151 

they wrote to tlie Fatlierland, and related the cause 
and occasion of this war, with all the circumstances, as 
they had happened. 

J. How did you manage in the meantime, before 
an answer came back ? 

B. We were indeed compelled to choose one of 
two evils. Then the director allowed ravaging and 
robbing where he could, and in the year 1643 and 
1644, full sixteen hundred Indians were slain in the 
war in the manner before related, some of whom were 
settled ten to twenty miles,* and more, off from us 
under the English, and were most all surprised in the 
night while asleep, some of whom had never seen any 
Dutch in their lives, much less done them any harm. 

In April, 1644, seven Indians were arrested by the 
English on the great plain which is called Hempstead, 
— where Mr. Fordham, an English minister, had the 
rule, — ^because they had kiUed a hog or two of his, 
which was afterwards found to have been done by his 
own countrymen. Director Kieft being advised by 
Mr. Fordham that he had seven Indians under arrest, 
in a cellar, whom he dared not treat cruelly, because it 
could not be justified to his own people, — for such 
treatment will not be permitted there,— or also because 
his nation rather sought to create a general discontent 
among the Indians towards our governors, he immedi- 
ately sent there Ensign Opdyck, with John Underhill, 
an Englishman, and fifteen or sixteen soldiers, who 
killed three of the seven in the cellar, and took four 
with them in the sail-boat, two of whom, with ropes 



■ * Dutch measure. 



152 BROAD ADVICE. 

tied round tlieir necks, were tlirown overlboard and 
fastened to tlie boat, and in that manner were towed 
after it and drowned. Two were taken prisoners to 
Fort Amsterdam, where, having "been kept a long time 
in the guard-house, the director became tired of pro- 
viding them food any longer ; and the soldiers being 
at variance, to whom this booty belonged, about going 
with it to Holland, he gave these poor naked Indian 
prisoners over to them, in order to cool off their 
insolence. They immediately dragged them out of the 
guard-house by the arms and legs, and attacked them 
with knives from eighteen to twenty inches long, which 
Director Kieffc had caused to be made expressly for 
such purposes, saying that the swords were too long to 
be used in the huts of the Indians when they wanted 
to surprise them, but these knives could be more 
handily plunged into their bowels. The first of these 
Indians having received, before the guard-house, a hor- 
I'ible wound from such a knife, wished them to let him 
Kinte-Kcieye^ — ^being a dance, performed by them as a 
religious rite ;* — but he received so many wounds, one 
upon another, that he forgot the Kinte-Kaeye, and 
dropped down dead on the spot. The soldiers cut 
strips from the live body of the other, from the hams, 
up the back and shoulders, and down to the knees. 
Whilst this thong-cutting was going on, Director Kieft 
stood by, in presence of his counselor, Jan le Mon- 



* Denton, in his " Brief Description of N"ew Tork," describes this dance 
under the name of Cantica, The term is one of the few Indian words adopted 
by the whites, and is still in use among our old inhabitants to designate a danc- 
ing frolic. It is pronounced " Canticoy." 



BROAD ADVICE. 153 

taigne, a Frencliman, and laughed right heartily, rub- 
bing his right arm and laughing out loud, such delight 
had he in the work. He then ordered him, thus cut, 
to be dragged out of the fort, whence this poor, naked, 
simple creature went Kinte-Kaeying all the way. The 
soldiers, going with him to the beavers' path, threw him 
down, and stuck his private parts, which they had cut 
off, into his mouth while he was still alive, and after 
that placed him on a mill-stone and beat his head off. 

H. What murder that was ! 

B. What I say is true. By the same token, there 
stood at the time twenty-four or twenty-five Indian 
women at the northwest angle of the fort, who, 
seeing this spectacle, threw up their hands, beat their 
mouths, and said in their language, "Shame, — what 
foul and unspeakable villainy this is ; such was never 
heard of, or seen, or happened among us." The Indians 
have frequently during the war called outjo us from a 
distance, " What scoundrels you Swannekens are ! you 
war not against us, but against our innocent women 
and children, whom you murdered ; while we do your 
women and children no harm, but give them to eat 
and drink, yea, treat them well and send them back to 
you;" as, in truth, it had happened that our children, 
who were taken prisoners by the Indians, on being 
returned to their parents would hang round the necks 
of the Indians, if they had been with them any length 
of time. 

K. Well, Skipper, you have more news, though 
little of it good, than all of us together. How did it 
progress ? 

20 



154 BROAD ADVICE. 

B. Director Kieft not Being content with thus 
causing the fugitive Indians to be surprised, sent cer- 
tain English spies with the soldiers, as guides, in order 
to point out the places, which were unknown to us, 
where the Indians were living, hy which means many 
poor, unoffending Indians were foully and treacherously 
massacred. 

Gr. What pay did the guides have for that service ? 

B. By the journey, according to the amount of 
booty taken, — sometimes 80, 100, to 200 guilders. 

E. Well, what booty was there to take from these 
poor Indians? 

B. Belts of zeewan, bows and arrows, sometimes 
beaver skins, but few to signify. 

E. What importance was that ? 

B. It can not reduce the expenses of the war ; and 
indeed, if there were any thing to tempt robbery, it 
was not worth enough — all the booty which was ob- 
tained — to cause a gallows to be erected for a thief, if 
one had stolen it, much less to carry on such a hazard- 
ous war. 

F. How did your director manage with the inhab- 
itants under these circumstances ? 

B. He began to introduce tolls, excises, and im- 
posts, in order to obtain the means for the war, to 
which proceedings they were all opposed. Eight men, 
chosen from the people, understanding that Kieft, in 
his letter to the XIX.,* endeavored to shift the origin 
and cause of the war upon the people, have sent a 

* The nineteen managers of the West India Company. 



BROAD ADVICE. 155 

second letter to the Cljamber of Amsterdam, wlierein 
every thing is particularly stated, which, letter was 
signed by these persons, namely, Joachim Pietersz- 
Keuyter, an elder of the Church, Cornells Melyn, Isaac 
Allerton, Jacob Stoifelsz: Gerrit Wolfertz: Thomas 
Hall, Jan Evertsz-Bout, and Barent Dircksz : 
E. Was there nothing done ? 

B. Yes ; the managers before-mentioned, with 
whom he corresponded so intimately, sent him back a 
copy, and made known to him what persons had writ- 
ten, and what they had written ; whereupon he medi- 
tated every means to revenge himself upon these 
persons, and by all kinds of pretexts and violence to 
discharge himself of those things lai(i to his charge. 

A. That same work happened also in Brazil ? 

C. Whoever goes once beyond the limits of mod- 
esty, is generally stout in his immodesty. 

D. He must have been a wicked man. 

E. Had he any religion ? 

B. Ravens' religion, who rob whatever falls in their 
way. What religion could be expected in a man who, 
from the 8d January, 1644, to 11th May, 1647, has 
never wished to hear God's word, nor to partake of 
Christian sacraments, doing every thing to keep from 
church all those who depended upon him ? His godless 
example was thus followed by his fiscal, Cornells van 
der Hoyckens, and his counselor, Jan de la Montaigne, 
who was formerly an elder, Ensign Gisbert de Leeuw, 
Cornells van Tienhoven, his secretary. Deacon Oloff 
Stevensz : and Gysbrecht van Dyck, besides various 
minor officers and servants of the company, down to 



156 BROAD ADVICE. 

tte soldiers inclusive, wlio all did not attend the ad- 
ministration of the Lord's Supper, or even tlie meetings 
to hear God's word. He permitted the officers and 
soldiers to perform all kinds of noisy plays during the 
sermon, near and around the church, rolling ninepins, 
bowling, dancing, singing, leaping, and other profane 
exercises. Yes, even the members who came in the 
fort* to celebrate the Lord's Supper, were scoffed at 
by this rabble, saying, "There they go again; they 
will give them a piece of bread to drink once thereto, 
and then sing and frolick." By this scoffing, difficulties 
have frequently arisen. During the preparatory ser- 
mon, Director Kieft often let the drum beat. The 
minister, Bogardas, requesting that the drum might be 
beaten a little further off, so as not to disturb the con- 
gregation, was answered that the drummer must go 
where the director had ordered him. The cannon was 
discharged several times during the sermon, as if he 
had ordered it for the purpose of going a-Maying, so 
that a miserable villainy against God's church was per- 
petrated in order to disturb the congregation. In the 
new church, which was built in the year 1642 by col- 
lections from the people, and roofed in the year 1643, 
there could have been preaching from that time to the 
year 1647, when Director Stuyvesant came. He has 
also often said to his own adherents, in substance, 
"Now the minister shall dispense the Lord's Supper 
again, and there shall scarcely come a man and a half 
or one horse's face. They will all follow us, and every 
one of them remain out." 

* The church vas built within the fort. 



BROAD ADVICE. 157 

E. What was the cause of his making such 
bravados ? 

B. The cause of this director's crooked proceed- 
ings against the worship of God, besides his own per- 
verseness and the devil's, and the instigations of evil 
people, was, externally, because the minister, the late 
Everhardus Bogardus, many times in his sermons freely 
expressed himself against the horrible murders, covet- 
ousness, and other gross excesses. The director reported 
falsely of the minister that he was drunk in the pulpit, 
so that the minister was compelled to take the affida- 
vits of the peoj)le to the contrary, in order to use them 
as occasion required ; and also said that the minister 
rattled only old wives' stories, drawn out from a distaff; 
that he was a great cackler, who spoke without toler- 
ating contradiction ; and that he was a seditious man, 
who sought nothing else than to excite the people and 
the servants of the company against him, who was 
their sovereign ruler. That Elder Joachim Pieterz: 
Keuyter, because he stood by the minister, was an 
assassin; wherefore, by the director's means, no con- 
sistory was assembled for two or three years, as no 
more than the minister and one elder were left, who 
did not dare to hold the consistory, as was sufficiently 
endeavored to be done afterwards, in order to cast a 
slur u]3on the body, and say, that they organized the 
consistory on private authority. It was said that the 
wickedness of the director extended so far, and he had 
so far forgotten himself, and his flatterers so well 
agreed with him, that he gave himself no concern 
either about God or man. Notwithstanding all the 



158 BROAD ADVICE. 

uproar against God's cliurcli, the wise God lias so 
specially directed, that wliereas there were not, tefore 
his abandonment, more than seventy members from 
among the people, there were afterwards more than 
half as many added, and the members are so restrained 
by God's guidance, that less scandal has taken place 
than ever before. 

F. Tell me, how could such an impious rascal as 
this director govern the people afterwards ? 

B. That may with good reason be brought up. 
As the spit was thus turned into the ashes, to go 
straight -to sea was with him not to come from it. He 
was as jealous as the devil, whenever he observed that 
those whom he meant to trust without suspicion, came 
to speak familiarly with those whom he suspected. It 
was, as is said, 

Consciiis ipse sibi de se putat omnia dici : 

"He whose conscience is troubled, supposes that every 
one is speaking of him." In the administration of just- 
ice, he gave corruption a free rein for himself and his 
people. He considered it a crime if any one spoke of 
appeal from his judgment, as appeared, among others, 
in a certain law-suit which he instituted against Laurens 
Cornelisz : captain of the Maid of Enckhuysen, because 
he said he had brought a box of pearls to his mother ; 
which being true, as is known to this day, he never- 
theless caused the skipper, on account of the richness 
of his freight and his illegal acts, to be condemned by 
his council according to his pleasure. 

He was so boastful of his commissioB, which he had 



BROAD ADVICE. 159 

botli from tlie company and from tlieir Higli Migliti- 
nesses and Ms Higliness, tliat not only lie himself, but 
Ms councilor, Jan de la Montaigne, maintained tliat lie 
had absolute and sovereign power, like Ms Highness, 
or their High Mightinesses, and the West India Com- 
pany ; which comparison fell very odiously on the feel- 
ings, for this man wished to be great without striving 
after the qualities of true greatness, namely, virtue, 
honor, and piety. 

His injustice and illegal administration of justice 
were also apparent in a certain suit against Francis 
Douthey, an English minister, to whom he had given 
permission to form a colony, before the war, and who 
had made such a beginning therein, that more than 
eighty persons had proceeded there. The war coming 
on, every thing ran down and came to a stand. They 
durst not go on with the work. The before-mentioned 
persons and the means melted away. Out of this, a 
suit was instituted. Master Douthey was permitted to 
build a colony on condition that he peopled the desig- 
nated land, which condition was not performed. It 
could not be performed by him. It was, however, suffi- 
cient cause of action, in order to have the lands turned 
into the company by confiscation, and to give them to 
another patroon ; as, by suit for that purpose, the 
matter was accomplished. Master Douthey appealing 
from this judgment, was fined twenty-five guilders, and 
was to remain in close confinement until the twenty- 
five guilders were paid. 

G-. Durst he do that to an English minister ? It 



160 BROAD ADVICE. 

was a brave case for reprisals upon the ships of the 
"West India Company. 

B. But Kieft saw that very well, and therefore he 
would not let the man go away, though he was greatly 
injured; but they were willing to let him go if he 
would promise, in writing, not to mention what had 
happened. 

He carried on similar proceedings against one 
Arnoldus van Hardenburgh, curator of a certain 
barque of Seger Tennissen, in which some smuggled 
goods were found. The director and the fiscal claimed, 
therefore, that the goods in the barque were confis- 
cated. Hardenburgh and his co-curators feeling 
aggrieved, protested against the judgment, and ap- 
pealed therefrom to such judges as counsel should 
bring it before. For this he also was fined twenty-five 
guilders. He went as far as the prison, but not being 
willing to be led in by the sergeant, he paid it, like 
Master Doughty. 

Gr. Why do not the States of Holland send some 
other person to hold better rule ? 

B. The States having fully understood all these 
evils, directed the managers — who were well aware that 
they had too long played with Director Kieft they 
well knew, what part — to correct them. The managers 
thereupon chose Petrus Stuyvesant, late director at 
Curagoa, a minister's son in Vriesland, who had for- 
merly stolen the daughter of his own landlord at 
Franiker, and was caught at it, and let off for the sake 
of his father, otherwise he would have been disgraced. 
He was to be director in Kieft's place. 



BROAD ADVICE, IGl 

E, How did this company know wliere to look np 
all tkese rascals ? I believe that tliey must have mag- 
azines full of tkem. 

B. Their High Mightinesses thought that the 
managers would take care that no more complaints 
would be made about a brutal, much less a wicked 
direction; but we are informed that the same man- 
agers who had intrigued with Kieft, had already, to 
the decline and ruin of ISTew Netherland, induced him 
(Stuyvesant) to sustain Kieft, and to annoy the inhab- 
itants uj)on every pretext whatever. He could not 
restrain himself until time and occasion furnished a 
cause, but whue on his way to New ÏSTetherland, threat- 
ened that when he arrived there he would teach the 
boors better. As he had promised by oath and by 
grip of the hand that he would punish the faults of 
Director Kieft according to their merits, and properly 
sustain the inhabitants, so the result has proven entirely 
the contrary of those fine promises, according to the 
instructions which he had already shown to several, 
and which had been given him by the managers, order- 
ing him to do as he has since done. 

I. Is that not the same Stuyvesant who, before 
this, attempted to take Fort St. Martin for the com- 
pany, where he lost his leg ? 

B. He is the very same. The managers regarded 
that as a Koman achievement by him. 

I. All those who were with him there will say 
otherwise ; how he used up the powder, which was 
given us for the expedition, in firing salutes on the 
voyage,^ and when any thing was to be done, there was 

21 



162 BEOAD ADVICE. 

none on hand. Every thing went on as disorderly in 
that expedition, as had never happened on any expe- 
dition. We were compelled to move off and retire 
without accomplishing any thing, — on account of his 
leg alone, which was shot off by the first cannon-shot 
from Fort St. Martin, — and leaving every thing behind 
which we had brought there, including five or six fine 
field-pieces. Was not that a brave Roman business ? 
Who knows what expense the company has been put 
to for this expedition? Did not such a brave and 
prudent hero deserve to be chosen and sent, by way of 
promotion, as director and redressor-general to New 
Netherland ? 

B. When he comes from there, the managers may 
send him to Brazil as president, in order to spoil 
entirely what remains, as he is accustomed to do. 

I. He now, surely, gets every day a day older, 
and ought to improve so as to wipe out previous faults. 
How does he manage, now, in New Netherland ? 

B. Improve, say you. Comrade ! like old wolves 
and sailing-ships, which get every day a day worse. 

I. Does he curse and storm and rage, as he used 
to do, to striking and beating ? 

B. In that respect he is still the same man as he 
was of old ; so there is no change to be expected, ex- 
cept for the worse. 

I. What entry had he in New Netherland ? 

B. There was brave shooting on all sides, so that 
they were compelled to buy powder elsewhere to use 
in case of need, and for exercise. 

I. That I can well guess. Bat how does he man- 
age with the inhabitants ? 



BROAD ADVICE. 163 

B. When lie first came, some of the principal 
inhabitants welcomed with uncovered heads their new 
director. He kept them standing several hours bare- 
headed, while he had his hat on, as if he were the 
Grand Duke of Muscovy, offering nobody a seat to sit 
down, although he himself had sat down at his ease in 
a chair, in order the better to give audience to the wel- 
comers. 

I. You speak so lively of his manner, that I im- 
agine I see it all now. Proceed about this brute. 

B. In short, when he took the direction from Kieft, 
and the Commonalty were called together for the pur- 
pose, Kieft first thanked the Commonalty for their 
loyalty, and the like, but more than was reasonable, in 
hopes that the Commonalty would have returned him 
thanks unanimously, which was actually proposed. 
Some spoke out roundly that they did not thank him, 
nor had they reason to do so, among whom were Joa- 
chim Pietersz : Keuyter, and Cornells Melyn. Stuy- 
vesant, under the blue heaven, promised, with loud 
words, that every one should have equal justice, which 
was pleasant to the ears of the Commonalty to hear. 
But some days afterwards, as he was persuaded and 
induced by Kieft, Stuyvesant held court, and let the 
letter of the Common's-men, written to the Chamber of 
Amsterdam against Kieft, be brought before it. As he 
had taken sides with Kieft, he wished to take care that 
nothing should be written afterwards against himself, 
and accordingly considered these eight deputies as pri- 
vate individuals, and also so regarded all their business 
and the whole suit between Kieft and them. With 



164 BROAD ADVICE. 

him it was crimen Icesce majestatis^ to unite against tlie 
magistrates, wlietlier there were cause or not. Kieft's 
bare denial availed more than the Commonalty's men 
proved ; and when the deputies offered divers memo- 
rials, points of inquiry, and persons, in order to estab- 
lish the truth of what was written, they were at once 
l^artly rejected, partly received without weight, and 
partly concealed before the day came. Yes, what was 
still more, they got the persons who had signed the 
letter, and compelled them by high authority and 
heavy threats, as also fine promises, first not to mention 
what should be proposed to them ; then, to revoke what 
they had written, or at least to give it another gloss, 
and to say that they were suborned to sign it, and were 
misinformed, not even knowing what they had signed, 
and that they had done it only upon the earnest soli- 
citation of some who, as was seen by the signatures, 
remained firm, and still defended the same. 

So Diï'ector Stuyvesant passed sentence against 
Joachim Pietersz : and Cornells Melyn, in which he 
maintained — that they had clandestinely and lyingly 
accused Director Kieft, their lawful governor and chief, 
and injured him, yes, falsely belied him — in which he, 
with his Council, in that well-ordered rej)ublic of New 
Netherland, willing to protect his cause, in the name of 
their High Mightinesses the Lords States General, his 
Highness the noble Prince of Orange, and the General 
Authorized West India Company, condemned Joachim 
Pietersz : Keuyter to a banishment of three successive 
yeai's, and (a fine of) one hundred and fifty guilders, 
one-third for the fiscal, one-third for the poor, and one- 



BROAD ADVICE. 165 

third for tlie church. Cornelis Melyn was charged in 
his sentence with more crimes, and visited with severer 
punishment. (As Kieft had before this supposed that 
he would have a share with him in Staten Island, and 
Cornelis Melyn, with whom he had agreed in the Fa- 
therland to treat with about it, had been compelled to 
conclude agreements with others,* Kieft meditated 
playing him this trick, as the result showed.) As can 
more fully appear by the sentence, which is in exist- 
ence,f he was convicted as above-mentioned, of having 
committed crimen Icesce majestatis^ crimen falsi, crimen 
of slander, and on account of these incurred the depriv- 
ation of all benefits derived or to be derived from the 
company, a penalty of 300 guilders, to be applied as 
before-mentioned, and banishment for seven years from 
New Netherland. So that those whom Kieft had in- 
sulted were kicked away by Stuyvesant. 

It is worthy of particular note that when it was 
stated to Director Kieft that these jDroceedings would be 
regarded in a different light in Holland, he answered, 
" We may alarm each other but little about justice in 
Holland, which in this case I consider nothing more 
than a bugbear." 

And Stuyvesant said, " If I knew you would here- 
after appeal from my sentence, or divulge the same, I 
would, by my soul ! take off your head, or hang you to 
the highest tree in New ISTetherland." He represented 
the affair of Kieft to those around, as favorably as he 

* Kieft had, upon the mandate of the West India Company, granted a 
patroonahip in Staten Island to Melyn. 
f See Note, at the end. 



166 BROAD ADVICE. 

could, and spoke against tlie faithful Commonalty's 
men so violently that the froth hung from his beard. 
And that it might more boldly appear that he was not 
inclined to observe the order of their High Mighti- 
nesses, and his promises to them, and to give the Com- 
monalty reasonable contentment, he immediately made 
Jan Janssen Damen church-warden — a man who had 
signed the petition to murder the Indians. 

E. He was a fine church-warden, with his bloody 
hands ! 

B. It is to be apprehended, if the Netherland 
United Provinces, their High Mightinesses, and his 
Highness, do not see to it in time, that the names of 
Netherland, their High Mightinesses, and Orange, will 
stink, not only with the Indians, but with all Chris- 
tendom. It is disgrace enough that it has not been 
attended to before. Therefore, those to whom the 
welfare of Netheiland, New Netherland, and of the 
government and the inhabitants, is dear, ought to 
endeavor that this matter be redressed. 

I. But the sentence before-mentioned, was it car- 
ried into execution ? 

B. Certainly ; for it was of great importance to 
the new director, Stuyvesant, to his own honor and 
reputation, yea, his own life. They were brought 
on board as exiles, and torn away from their goods, 
wives, and children. The ship " Princess " bore the di- 
rector (Kieft) and these two true patriots from New 
Netherland, till, arriving in the (English) Channel, she 
ran upon a shoal and beat to pieces ; when this god- 
less Kieft seeing death before his eyes, and sighing 



BROAD ADVICE. 167 

deeply, doubtfully asked both of tliem : " Friends, I 
have done you wrong, can you forgive me ?" The ship 
being broken in eight pieces, drove the whole night in 
the sea till day-break. The most of them were 
drowned. Cornells Melyn lost his son. The Minister 
Bogardus, Kieft, Captain John de Vries, and a large 
number of men were drowned. There was much 
wealth lost with Kieft, as the ship's return cargo was 
worth more than four hundred thousand guilders. 
Joachim Pietersz : Keuyter remained upon the after part 
of the ship alone, upon which a piece of cannon stood, 
which he observing from above out of the port-hole, in 
the break of day, took to be a man, and accordingly 
spoke to it, but receiving no answer supposed he was 
dead. He was finally thrown on land with it, to the 
great astonishment of the English, who stood by thou- 
sands on the shore, and hauled the cannon to land, 
as a perpetual memorial. Melyn floating back to sea, 
fell in with others who remained upon a part of the 
ship on a sand bank, which at the ebb-tide became dry, 
when they took some planks and pieces of wood which 
they put together in the sand bar, and took as many 
shirts and other garments as were necessary for a sail, 
so that they were enabled to get from the sand bar, 
over the channel, to the main-land of England. 

And as these persons were mostly concerned for 
their papers, some of which were totally lost in the 
sea, they fished for them till the third day. As many 
of them as were packed in a box, were saved, and are 
to this hour in possession of Joachim Pietersz. 



168 BROAD ADVICE. 

C. How some people are tossed about in the 
world ! How did these men ever get justice ? 

B. They told me afterwards, that when they 
reached Holland, they understood the managers la- 
mented very much the loss of the rich cargo and the 
ship, and so many fine folks, and grieved that two 
bandits, rebels, and mutineers had come to annoy the 
company with their complaints. 

I. Was that the comfort which they received from 
the managers ? 

B. That was not only their comfort, but some of 
the managers have attempted to prevent a hearing 
for them by their High Mightinesses. 

I. It were better that hell and hell fire stopped 
these villains. Who dared attempt that ? 

B. Those who corresponded with these godless 
children of Belial, — Van Beeck and Pasquin,— men whom 
they knew how to stir up. They obtained a hearing, 
however, and presented their matters so plainly before 
their High Mightinesses, that they thought proper to 
prohibit such wicked proceedings, dispatching letters 
of prohibition. They sent for Stuyvesant to come 
back, or else to send an attorney either to sustain his 
sentence, or hear it annulled, or to reverse it there. 
For this their High Mightinesses provided them all 
necessary mandates, protections, executions, and other 
necessary instruments. 

I. How did Stuyvesant manage in the mean time 
towards the inhabitants ; and what regulations did he 
adopt ? 



BROAD ADVICE. 169 

B. Show of religion, and hypocrisy, form one part 
of this man, and puffed-up pride, especially in regard 
to his commission, another part, and avarice a third 
part. All his acts sprout from these three roots, and 
shoot their tops in the wind far above others. As soon 
as he had taken possession of his directorship, he began 
first to make the church of use to him, which was a fine 
example. He sighed during the sermon so that he was 
heard by the whole church. Who would not suppose 
that he would be a righteous Solomon, Abiah, Asa, and 
desired prince ? But all this fine show "was covered by 
the clouds of his dark deeds. And when the news 
came that the exiles were permitted by their High 
Mightinesses to return, and that their High Mighti- 
nesses had granted their appeal — which Stuyvesant 
had never thought that they would have gone so far 
with, but that the managers would, as they had assured 
him, have prevented it — feeling pricked on account of 
these things, he sought advice on all sides, which was 
not without benefit to him ; for some showed him how 
wrongly he had proceeded against the persons, — who 
were chosen for the Commonalty's men, — as against 
private individuals ; so that, he knowing that he had 
injured them, and being advised to quiet the people, 
was well disposed to do so. But when he came to 
Secretary Tienhoven, he was, as if it would hurt his 
reputation, turned around. So that, relying upon his 
worn-out reputation, he has dared to say, "If they 
return with never so strong an order of their High 
Mightinesses, I will send them back again, and teach 
them how to appeal.", 
22 



170 BROAD ADVICE. 

Item: it being mentioned to him that in Kieft's 
time appeals were intended, he said, " What happened 
then little concerns me, but some one may in my time 
think of appealing also, but if any one should appeal 
from my sentence, I would cut off his head, and send 
the pieces to Holland, and so let him appeal." 

Notwithstanding the great noise with which he 
inquired of these people, he began on their arrival to 
create a diversion, but it failed him. 

And when Cornells Melyn arrived on the 1st of 
January, after many hardships, he wanted to take by 
force all the letters which Melyn had brought with 
him, to whom he sent the fiscal and secretary twice in 
the night. 

But Melyn sent nothing to him, except the pass- 
port of their High Mightinesses. He thereupon sent, 
the third time, a sergeant to have him appear before 
the General with his papers. He was answered by 
Melyn, that he would come before the council in the 
morning, and then produce and deliver up every thing 
which he had to produce and deliver. Had it not been 
for the strong protest of the councilor Lubbertus van 
Dincklage, vice-director, who was not willing to have 
any thing to do with his opposition and hasty rage 
against the passport of their High Mightinesses, he 
would with his soldiers have thrown Melyn again into 
prison. 

The next day, in the morning, Melyn being sum- 
moned, appeared and delivered all the orders and 
dispatches of their High Mightinesses, and also those 
of his Highness, and of divers others written to him 



BROAI) ADVICE. 171 

particularly. "When these letters were read through, 
the hand ïvas in the hair* Good ad^^ce was the best, 
whereby he was so far brought over, that he said to 
Melyn and answered that he, Stuyvesant, would follow 
the orders of their High Mightinesses, and he, Melyn, 
should pursue his business as before. But these words 
had no significance ; for Melyn desired to be rung in 
as he was rung out, and reinstated as a Commonalty's 
man, from which place he had been unrighteously 
removed ; also to have restitution of the losses which 
he had sustained by these rude and unlawful proceed- 
ings. He would grant none of them. 

It was determined to carry into effect the order of 
their High Mightinesses on the 8th of March, 1649, at 
the time when the general, Stuyvesant, had convened 
the Commonalty of New Netherland in the church, in 
order that he might have his amj)le commission read 
before them, and his sovereign government vindicated 
thereby. By this he intended to kill dead the present 
order of their High Mightinesses, or at least to suspend 
it, besides endeavoring to effect other like designs upon 
his own responsibility. The Vice-Director Dincklage 
protested that he had no knowledge of and gave no 
consent to these movements, and that the General had 
of his own motion caused this assembling of the Com- 
monalty, and presented his own views to them without 
communicating them to him, the vice-director. This 
protest he villainously ridiculed; whereupon Melyn, 
perceiving that the longer he staid the worse it was, 

* That is, Stuyvesant -w'as perplexed. 



172 BROAD ADVICE, 

left the execution of the mandate of tlieir Higli Might- 
inesses to be effected by Arnoldus van Hardenberg, 
who was invited and agreed to do so in presence of the 
whole Commonalty. 

The director-general seeing such unexpected oppo- 
sition befalling him, did not know what countenance 
to assume : to attack any one hostilely in presence of 
all these witnesses was not prudent, and to do nothing 
was to injure his reputation before such a large assem- 
blage of more than three hundred persons. He asked 
Melyn whether he would now let the order be exe- 
cuted, who answered. Yes. He seized the mandate 
angrily out of the hands of him executing it, so that 
the seal of their High Mightinesses hung to the parch- 
ment in halves, and if it had been paper only, it would 
have been torn by this irreverent grabbing. When 
those who stood next to him earnestly admonished him 
to have respect for their High Mightinesses, a copy of 
the mandate was placed in his hands by Melyn, and 
the original mandate was again put in the hand of the 
person executing it, who read it out loud, and required 
his answer thereto. Shortly afterwards, the lowest part 
of the seal fell off. 

H. I have seen more such birds hobble off than 
fly. Had he no other respect for his lords and chief 
magistrates, he would with us certainly forfeit his life. 

B. It ought to be so here too, and I do not con- 
sider him yet free. 

E. But did he give no answer to the mandate ? 

B. That would have been worse than madness, as 
he had nothing to answer. He said the States and 



BROAD ADVICE. 173 

their commission were to be honored, their commands 
obeyed, an authorization sent, and the sentence sus- 
tained. 

. E. But, as on a sentence of banishment more per- 
sons ordinarily sit, why were not the others, who had 
taken part in the sentence, cited with him ? 

B. On the 16th of March, 1649, the fiscal, Henrick 
van Dyck (who had committed a well-known murder 
at Utrecht, and had been compelled to go from thence 
on account of it), was summoned to sustain the sen- 
tence. He answered that he had taken no part in this 
question, notwithstanding he was mentioned in the 
sentence as the accuser, and had subscribed it. 

I. Henrick van Dyck! "Was he not ensign for- 
merly in New Netherland, when Kieffc was there ? 

B. Yes, it is the same man, who dragged the 
Indians from Hempstead. 

L But since then he has been fiscal. How has he 
attended to that office ? 

B. That I will tell you shortly. It happened that 
Cornells Eenckhoorn was very murderously cut in the 
belly by Skipper Jan Huygens, after some had escaped 
from him whom he intended to serve similarly. This 
murderer was imprisoned in the guard-house, and the 
same night was taken back by the fiscal. Van Dyck, to 
the house where the dead man was lying, and sat there 
drinking with the fiscal till the latter part of the night, 
when he made his escape by the chimney. Further- 
more, Skipper Isaac Abrahamsz; being shot dead by 
Skipper Adrisen Blowmserts, pilot of Stuyvesant's 
galiot, he was brought by the fiscal on board of us, and 



174 BROAD ADVICE. 

remained till we were some days at sea. I knew 
notMng of it, and put him ashore at tlie Huys-duynen, 
to take care of bimself. But it may be seen liow 
strongly tke disposition to murder has increased in th.e 
fiscal under this director. Gerrit Slomp, son of a fish- 
woman of Amsterdam, was very murderously stabbed 
to death by Joannes Rodenburgh. The murderer was 
never molested in New Netherland, where the deed 
was committed, whose brother was one of the coun- 
cilors there. 

I. How fared the other councilors ; were they not 
cited ? 

B. The vice-director, Lubbertus van Dincklage, 
was summoned on the same day, and answered that he 
had been- misled, because the various papers which 
were now produced were concealed from him at the 
time, and would otherwise have acquitted the con- 
demned; furthermore, because Stuyvesant, in giving 
the sentence, had first decided that these persons had 
written about public affairs without being qualified by 
public authority. 

Monsieur la Montaigne, councilor without commis- 
sion from the Fatherland, a Frenchman, cited, made 
answer that Melyn should first give the reasons for 
citing him, and then he would answer. 

Brian Nuton, captain and lieutenant, an English- 
man, answered that he did not understand what it 
was, but would answer in the morning. 

Paulus Leandertsz :, equipage-master, gave for an- 
swer that he would appear or send an attorney, pro- 
vided Melyn would first give security. 



BROAD ADVICE. ITS 

ALraliam Planck, one of tlie request-masters, an- 
swered that lie did not know how the war Ibegan. 

On the 23d March, 1649, Cornells van Tienhoven, 
the secretary, was summoned by process as before. He 
was the cause of the war with the Indians, and of all 
this alBfair, and deferred answering until the 25th of 
May. He said that he did not wish to give any answer, 
and did give none. 

On the 23d of May, Jan Jansz: Damen, one of 
those whose names were upon the petition to carry on 
the war with the Indians, answered that whenever the 
order of their High Mightinesses was shown him 
wherein his name was specified, he would then come, 
provided Melyn first gave security for the costs. 

C If it be managed there, as you say, it is very 
badly done by the director and part of his council. 
But did he manage afterwards to sustain his sentence, 
and to send his attorney to the Hague ? 

B. As Melyn was compelled to protest against 
him, he finally sent a written answer. The protest was 
made on the 29th of July, and was first read in full 
council on the 9th of August. The answer was dated 
the 10th of August, in which he for a great part 
receded from his former sentence, especially from the 
banishment ; excusing himself also that he was not 
bound to make restitution because he had received 
nothing, and also because he understood that while the 
matter was hanging under appeal he was not obliged 
to make restitution, and alleging similar frivolous rea- 
sons ; and leaving Melyn in free possession of his goods 
and efltects. In short, of all what this a&ighted judge 



176 BROAD ADVICE. 

had undertaken, Ms troubled conscience remained. See- 
ing that the men stood firm to their purpose that he 
should either make them reparation or send an attorney 
to Holland, he resolved to send the Secretary Tien- 
hoven to Holland ; and in order that he might antici- 
pate them, the secretary went in a small ship fourteen 
days before them, and we, with the deputies of the 
Commonalty, followed fourteen days afterwards. But 
as the secretary ran behind Ireland, as he deemed it 
necessary to do so, in order not to get on the same 
shoal as Kieft, and as we, with the deputies of the 
Commonalty, took our course straight to the Channel, 
we got in before him. 

C. Must, then, a whole committee be sent against 
one man ? Could not Melyn alone see after him — one 
against one ? 

B. No, Sir. I understand there are more com- 
plaints to be made against the director, and their High 
Mightinesses must be fully informed, and see what the 
Commonalty have done to be rid of such an intolerable 
government, or at least to have it corrected. 

C. Certainly it is not necessary that more should 
be shown than you have already stated. 

B. I would have, indeed, a year's work, if I were 
to tell all that has passed there improperly. 

E. If you have any more of these proofs. Skipper, 
tell them as briefly as possible. I have something else 
to inquire of you about. 

B. In order to conclude this statement, you should 
know of this director that whoever has him opposed to 
him in New Netherland, as long as he is there, if he 



BROAD ADVICE. IT? 

have ever so just a case, lie must suffer such fines and 
amends as pleases him. In matters of confiscation, he 
has as much discretion as a wolf for the lamb, which it 
devours he he right or not. If he sees beforehand 
that he cannot bring his ordinary councilors to concur 
with him in theii' votes, he takes as many extraordinary 
councilors as he can, with their votes to accomplish his 
deviltry, and then advises with his ordinary councilors. 
And when he can do nothing else, he brings his own 
opinion in writing upon the table, in order that those 
who have any thing against it may immediately speak 
against it ; which is ordinarily so long that the reading 
becomes tiresome. If that miscarries, he proceeds to 
scold and threaten every one, and makes such a clamor 
that one might wish that he were out of the council- 
chamber. Where there are two parties, before the 
case is presented he is the advocate of one of the par- 
ties to whom he is most friendly, or who has best 
bespoken him. There is no trade, in which there is 
any certain profit, but he seeks to get it all. The 
diversity of which is wonderful. He is a brewer ; he 
is a shipowner ; he carries on alone all kinds of business 
which we all do ; he builds, he fishes, and does a thou- 
sand like things, especially annoying to the farmers. In 
what he does alone, he regards nobody, either the least 
or the greatest — either public or private persons; for 
when it was determined by the Commonalty's men to 
send a committee to Holland, the director at first was 
willing it should be done ; but when they made charges 
against the director himself, he would not consent to it. 
He went in person to the lodgings of the president of 
23 



178 BROAD ADVICE, 

the people's men, and took from thence certain notes 
from which he (the president) intended to prepare a 
journal. Having possessed himself of these, he then 
made the president stay in his own cottage, a prisoner. 
He undertakes a business rashly, which he soon wishes, 
when he comes to himself, that he had never begun. 
He first sees every thing from behind, and is so hypo- 
critical and fickle that he cannot be depended upon. 
He has secretly complained to the minister that his 
mind was so troubled that he wished God would, ordi- 
narily or extraordinarily, by his word or his servant, 
show him what to do ; whereupon the minister boldly 
held up before him his errors, and exhorted him to im- 
provement, so that he whined like a dog ; but, coming 
to his work and wants again, he fell continually into 
greater and grosser faults. Thus, there are no hopes 
for the better. He forbids, upon pain of death, any 
one to sell fii-e-arms, powder, or lead to the Indians, 
yet does it himself in the sight of all the world ; for 
which, he says, his masters have given him orders. If 
this be true, what do they else than to put in the 
hands of the Indians a knife with which to cut our 
throats, as opportunity may offer ? — the which (God 
help them) has happened too much to those from 
Fatherland ; and it was time that a stricter order was 
given thereupon. To say all in a word : this man has 
so many particular qualities, of which not one is serv- 
iceable in a desirable republic, that he is not fit to rule 
over Turkish slaves in the galleys, much less over free 
Christians. The persons who have come over as depu- 
ties, have whole trunks full of papers containing charges 



BROAD ADVICE. 179 

against bim, whicli Secretary Tienlioven will have 
enough to do to answer. 

E. You are continually speaking of this Tien- 
hoven. Who is he ? 

B. He is a man who has run after the Indians like 
an Indian for love, departing from his religion, and 
whose father killed himself. 

E. What devil, then, does he worship ? 

B. He never has any scruples of conscience, from 
which he is to the remotest extent removed. He is a 
libertine, and there is no religion unless it will burn 
him. He resembles the serpents; those whom he 
stings he laughs at, and while he flatters he bites. He 
cheats every one who deals with him. Even his own 
brothers-in-law and friends are not free from his tricks, 
who have on that account frequently made him out a 
villain and the like. His wife was, before he married 
her, reputed to be a whore ; and he frequently told 
others, " If this whore thinks that I will marry her, I 
will know better than that ;" and shortly afterwards 
he married her, though, not ten days before, he himself 
had considered her a whore. Her mother protested 
that what had happened before his time should not be 
laid to her charge ; that he well knew what she was ; 
if she, therefore, did not please him, he might have 
left her as she was. She was, even during her mar- 
riage, caught in adultery, and proclamations were made 
concerning it for the purpose of instituting criminal 
proceedings against her. The pot was, however, cov- 
ered up. 

He has also been the book-keeper of the company, 



180 BROAD ADYICE. 

where lie has acted so wickedly, botli as regards private 
individuals and tlie company, tliat tlie poor common 
soldiers have not been secure from his thievish accounts 
and book-keeping. Peter Kock has shown me, as is to 
be seen at the office of the company at Amsterdam, 
how impudently he filched from him twelve guilders, 
and placed them to his own credit. 

He has endeavored to pilfer from another honest 
commissary, Crol, four thousand guilders by false 
accounts. 

In whatever he is engaged there is always, by his 
management, strife and contention; as, in writing a 
will for Wilhelm Bredenbeut, he had the witnesses, 
but would not let them subscribe their names. Every 
species of villainy which can be thought of, he has com- 
mitted. He has so kej)t his books, that never, or very 
seldom, especially if any dispute occurred, could the 
truth be drawn from them, so as to show the people 
where the entries were taken from which were charged 
against those interested in them. 

In short, nothing good can be said of this man, and 
no wickedness can be left unsaid of him. To the In- 
dians and Christians in New Netherland is he so ob- 
noxious, that they have desired and sought that this 
rascal should be sent out of the country, or that they 
would again engage in open war with us. Both his 
brothers-in-law signed that wicked request to murder 
the Indians. What worse can be said than murderer, 
thief, cheat, whoremonger, and villain ? and if he had 
not these faults, he would, with Clement Marot's serv- 
ant, be the best man in the world. 



BROAD ADVICE. 181 

E, What nations live next to New Netlierland, 
and how do these wicked regents Lehave themselves 
towards them ? It is very dangerous to live under such 
a government. 

B. The English, in thousands and an hundred 
thousand families, are our neighbors, so to speak ; and 
there are some Swedes, or HoUandish Swedes, who 
have wedged themselves in, God knows how, between 
them and us ! Our directors have so conducted towards 
them, taking from English harbors ships of persons 
trading with the English, that much bad blood exists ; 
but that nation are not easily led to excesses. If, how- 
ever, their High Mightinesses, or the government of 
our Fatherland, do not see to it in time, our nation 
will, by means of such scoundrels, come short; for the 
English, while they might have gone along smoothly, 
being once offended, are very sensitive. Matters have 
transpired between us and them, which would not be 
tolerated if every thing should be examined into, as it 
ought to be, by us as well as by them. 

E. Is there no boundary-line between you and 
them? 

B. There is no trifling difficulty about that, with 
which the sovereigns of both nations may be troubled. 
I would that that matter was settled. 

E. But how came the Swedes there ? What pre- 
tense have they there ? 

B. You may well ask that ; but what is known to 
me, I will keep in my sleeve, in order to see if they 
who are the cause of it will not remedy the same ; for 
Jan Prins, who is the commander there, obtains cargoes 



182 BROAD ADVICE. 

and sMps from Holland. I cannot understand how 
men so lost to all shame live in our Fatherland. But 
I say no more. God help or God destroy those who 
so contrive to injure us, and send to him openly guns, 
powder, and lead, in order to sell them to the Indians, 
and ultimately to murder our people. 

H. Is there no counsel in Holland against all such 
villainy ? 

B. There is in Holland counsel more than enough 
against it, if they who receive it would only adopt it. 

How easily could those who were appointed regents 
be required to state their birth-place and condition, 
and their subsequent lives then be inquired into, in 
order that such notorious scoundrels should not be 
appointed to high places over us ! Or it might be left 
to the Commonalty to seek out one or more persons, 
according to their pleasure, or to contrive other means, 
so that at least open murderers, thieves, and villains 
should not be entrusted with the command, and neither 
the people there nor the government here, as well of 
the country as of the company and stockholders, should 
be served by them. 

Further, as inordinate and Improper charges are 
imposed in many things, how easily can it be provided 
to remove them, and as opportunity offers, when the 
sheep have any wool, to pull it reasonably ! 

And as to the taxes which will be imposed upon 
the Commonalty by honest regents, nothing is to be 
done except with the increase of means to undertake, 
with discretion, at first, what is practicable, proper, 
and reasonable, and then to be content therewith. 



BROAD ADVICE. 183 

Furthermore, to manage to reduce all liigli officei-s 
and tlieir salaries, or at least to pay them so little, that 
they, living honestly, may do the State and the country 
more service. 

For, hitherto, in New ISTetherland, over seventy 
thousand guilders have ordinarily been spent by the 
company for wages ; and the income of the company 
has been scarcely fifty thousand guilders. Must that 
not go behind-hand which is not differently managed ? 
And if the directors have quarrels about it with their 
masters, then the people, hardly four or five hundred 
men strong, will be fleeced by force. Is not every one 
by this means frightened off from doing any thing in 
'New Netherland, from building up colonies, or attempt- 
ing any enterprise which would result in benefit to the 
inhabitants of our country, both here and there ? 

Above all, care should be taken not to put it in the 
power of one person to injure a large number, and even 
a whole community, by a needless and unjust, yea, such 
a destructive war, and to bring our nation into conten- 
tions with other nations. 

I dare assure the regents of the Netherlands, that 
if no redress be afforded to New Netherland it will go 
^to ruin, as has already happened by bad regents so 
other countries which have been under the manage- 
ment of the company. In New Netherland they are 
waiting, hotla. inhabitants and neighbors, Christians 
and Indians, the business of this deputation. And it 
will be a subject of much thought, while the govern- 
ment is committed to such an obstinate vagabond, 
whether the country will be found in the same state at 



184 BROAD ADVICE. 

we left it ; as tte Indians had a sharp eye upon those 
who were the cause of their cruel massacre, which they 
have yet in their minds. They want neither the power 
nor the opportunity. 

A. Skipper, you have talked almost all of us to 
sleep, with your bad news. 

B. Well, if they are all asleep, I will sleep awhile. 
Whoever wishes more, may inquire of others. Rest, 
comrade, rest ye a little. It is late enough to take 
rest. The Provinces and the stockholders of the com- 
pany, and others, private merchants, have here enough 
to think of, as to what has swallowed up all their sub- 
sidies and means, namely, a godless, indecent, wicked, 
unmannerly, and profligate government, which is 
known too well to all the world, and which must be 
redressed. 



APPENDIX. 



L. GRANTS license to M. to settle -uporL and possess 
N., a conquest, provided that tlie fullest power over 
the subjects who should put themselves under M. 
should remain with L., as should also, after the lapse of 
a certain numter of years, all forts and fortresses. 

O. thereupon agrees with M. to settle ujpon and 
possess a portion of N., pursuant to the aforesaid 
license, and under established privileges. 

O. being a subject, although a secret councilor of 
L., perceiving that some particular loss, either by the 
ill-direction of M., or by M.'s severe burdens, or by the 
fraudulent administration of his particular officers, 
would befall him, — in order to escape the same, makes 
an agreement with P., an officer of Q., an absent friend 
of L., sent by L. from Q., for the preservation of 
friendship. 

O. sells to P. his possessions or lands acquired in 
ISr. without informing L. or M. thereof 

P., without the knowledge of L. or M., takes full 
power and authority from his master Q., and means, 
people, ammunition, even provisions and ships from the 
country of L., debauches there, besides, some of the 
officers of M., by means of which, under the appear- 
24 



186 ArrENPux, 

ance of wishing to trade witli tlie inliabitants in N., 
takes possession of the before-mentioned pnrcliased 
lands lying at the entrance of one of the best rivers in 
N. ; where the officers of P. first began to plant vegeta- 
bles, then to sow the fields, and finally to build a fort, 
as they have subsequently, in process of time, built 
seven forts upon the river, whereby the subjects of L. 
and M. in N., who wish to go up the river, are com- 
pelled to lie before that fort each time, so that L., con- 
trary to his own granted license, and M., contrary to 
the privileges given him, come to lose their sove- 
reign jurisdiction on the river, and all manner of harm 
is done to the good inhabitants of L. and M., under 
pain of death. 

Hence aeise these questions: 

1. What crime or crimes has O. committed against 
L., M., and their subjects; and how shall, can, or must 
he make reparation to L., M., and their subjects ? 

2. What crime or crimes have P. committed, and his 
debauched officers, as also others who have in any 
degree meddled therewith ; and how will they make 
reparation ? * 

Advorsum hsec et alia, implorantur 



Consilia 

Auxilia 

Indicia 

Judicia 

Media 

Remedia 



Saluberrima J si dantur 

et V in 

Efficaeissima, ) Belgio. 



* The case here presented relates evidently to the encroachments of the 
Swedes on the Delaware. 



2 Timothy, III., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9. 

1. This kuo"w also, that in the last days perilous times shall come ; 

2. For men shall be loTers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, 
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 

3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, 
fierce, despisers of those that are good, 

4. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of 
God, 

5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the poTver thereof: from such 
turn away. 

9. But they shall proceed no further ; for their folly shall be manifest unto 
all men, as theirs also was. 



Note. 



The judgment against Melyn is preserved in the records at Albany. It 
should be read in connection with his complaint in the Breedcn Raedt. It runs 
as follows : 

"Whereas Cornelis Melyn, born at Antwei-p, about forty-five years of nge, an 
inhabitant of New Amsterdam, in New Netherland, dared, as is proven by state- 
ments under oath, to oppose and violate justice, on the 2d of May, 1645, and to 
threaten the Director-General, Kieft, then his governor and chief magistrate, 
with the gallows and wheel, or, as the delinquent, prevaricating but voluntarily 
confessing, admitted that he said to the attorney-general and others, " They who 
have given such orders* may be upon their guard that they come neither to the 
gallows nor on the wheel," and to oppose himself further to the orders of 
Director Kieft, so that the Attorney-general was obliged to protest of contumacy 
and opposition against said Melyn: And as said Melyn is, by sundry other state- 
ments under oath at different times, convicted of abusing the court, saying, that 
there was no justice here; that he was not subject to the director-general; that 
the director-general might look after the company's servants ; that he was the 
devil's head, with numerous mutinous and seditious words to divers soldiers and 
freemen, endeavoring to persuade the servants of the company to leave its 
service, 'because they would not receive their pay ; that the governor was the 
greatest liar in the country, who gave many fair words and promises, but never 
performed them ; and also of instigating the freemen not to pay what they o wed ; 
and of many other acts of the same kind, as is proven by various affidavits and 
credible witnesses, all of which were distinctly read to said Melyn ; and also of 
robbing or endeavoring to steal from the Indians on Long Island at the begin- 
ning of the war, in which they did not participate, their corn, in a clandestine 
or forcible manner, on which occasion an Englishman was shot by the said 
Indians ; which fact, notwithstanding his denial, appears from his own confession 
in open 'court on the 16th of January of this year, when he admitted that his 
servants, with some soldiers, planned the expedition, but against his orders ; of 
which, however, he never made any complaint, nor informed any court of what 
had happened, which is sufficient proof that he connived at the transaction, and 



• Ordivs in relation to the Indian war. 



190 NOTE. 

by his silence approved of it ; and also of compelling the Indians on Staten 
Island to surrender to him a part of their hunting-grounds, as appears by state- 
ments under oath on the last day of Jiily, 1645 ; — all which doings are of a per- 
nicious tendency, leading to mutiny and rebellion, defamation of justice, and of 
the chief magistrate, and encouraging violence : To all this must be added that 
he, Melyn, with one Jochem Petei-sen Kuyter, conceived and wrote a letter on 
the 28th of October, 1644, in the name of the eight elect men, which they 
copied, signed, and sent to the Honorable Directors of the West India Company 
of the Chamber of Amsterdam, as calumnious as false, wherein they, in most 
false and scandalous manner, abuse and insult the Hon. Director Kieft, then 
their governor and chief magistrate, as may be seen and read in the original, — 
the which being examined and investigated at the request of the aforesaid 
Director Kieft, We declaee that said letter is false in its principal points, as is 
confirmed by his voluntary confession, by the evidence of as many as fifteen 
others, and by the declarations and answers of several who signed the letter : 
Whereupon the attorney-general instituted proceedings against the said Melyn, 
and convicted him of having committed the crime of defamation against the 
court and justice, and falsehood in writing, and consequently of being guilty of 
the crime of Imsce majestatis. All which facts, proofs, and documents having 
been examined, and every part duly considered by the Hon. Director and 
Council, It is their opinion that such misdeeds are of the most serious and 
alarming consequences under any well-regulated government, where they ought 
not and cannot be tolerated, but ought to be exemplarily punished ; Wherefore 
the director-general, Petrus Stuyvesant, with the advice of the members of his 
council, administering justice in the name and in behalf of their High and 
Mighty Lords, the States General, his Highness the Prince of Orange, and the 
Noble Directors of the privileged West India Company, does condemn the afore- 
said Cornells Melyn to be banished for seven years from the limits of the juris- 
diction of New Netherland, to depart with the first sailing vessel, revoking and 
witlidrawing all benefices, pretensions, and honors which he owed to said 
directors, and in addition sentencing him to pay an amend of three hundred 
Carolus guilders, to be distributed, one-third to the poor, one-third to the 
church, and one-third to the attorney-general, and rejecting the other parts of 
the said attorney's conclusions. Bone in Council in Fort Amsterdam, 1?,d Jidy, 
1647. (Sd.) P. Stuyvesaudt, L. van Dincklage, Brian Newton, Pouwelis Leen- 

DEKS VAN DER GrRIFT, JaN ClAESSEN BoLL. 

The judgment against Kuyter follows that of Melyn in the record, under the 
date of 25th July, 1647. 



BiKRR, Godwin & Co., Printers^ 



\ 



VI 



■-■>'*-t--2?^ 



Y'n^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




010 638 670 5 



